The Midnight Two (V1)
by Sapphireloid
Summary: Seiko "Karma" Lee is the second daughter of the owner of a small noodle shop in Ninjago. She has dreams of becoming a samurai like the ones she sees on TV. One day, she crosses paths with an elemental master, causing her to find out she has powers herself. What will happen when she tries to unlock these powers and falls into conflict with those who wish to change Ninjago?
1. Chapter 1 & 2

_Li Zhao's, Ninjago City, 2:30pm_

I can't count how many days I've smelled the same lemon-scented cleaning chemical we use on the floors here, but I'm sure it's been years. Years since I became the legal age to work in the family restaurant. I have an exact memorized pattern of how I push the mop across the wooden floor and have learned a way to suppress my anxiety when taking orders. Though, I don't think speaking extra fast is a great method. It worked in school presentations though so, never know.

It was just last year when I had to drop out of high school in order to support my family. Mom and Dad couldn't afford tuition anymore and I was already working here at Li Zhao's, so there really wasn't much I could do. For now, I just get knowledge from watching educational programs on TV and listening to whatever my parents tell me. Though, those can't be too much of a trustworthy source either, can they? I'm not sure. I'm jealous that my sister got to finish high school, but then again she never got to go to college.

I'd like to say that I work more than my sister, Luo, does though, as any news article that pops up on TV about some dumb ninja boys' club distracts her. She seems so infatuated with them most of the time, saying they're the best when really I could care less. The real deal here is samurai. They're the cool ones. Though, the only time a samurai has been seen was over 3 years ago.

"Oh Seiko, can you believe these beauties were the people who freed us from that nasty dragon a few years ago?" Luo sighed, looking lovingly at the faces on the TV screen. I shrugged.

"Props to them. They won't ever be as cool as samurai though," I said, to which my sister scoffed.

"That's all you have to say about the people who saved us all!?" she exclaimed. My expression didn't change. "Don't you think any of them are hot, Seiko!?"

I looked at the screen for a second to see a tan man in a red gi. His hair was spiked almost ridiculously and a prominent scar was shown on his right eye. Then it switched to a paler, blond-haired boy with green eyes and a golden gi. Then it switched again to an even paler man with Tuscan red hair and freckles across his face. I shrugged.

"Some are okay, but nothing to lose my mind over. I don't care about looks anyway," I told my sister before returning to mopping. Luo groaned.

"With that attitude Seiko it'll be hard for you to get a boyfriend or girlfriend," she said, to which I snickered.

"I'm in no hurry, Luo. I'm fine just observing your relationship with the girl at the nail place down the street," I actually didn't know if it was an actual relationship or anything but I had seen my sister hanging around with a girl from the nail care place down the street. I'd almost think they were dating, which now I'm pretty sure they are.

"Don't tell Mom and Dad," Luo whispered while her face became bright red. I smiled.

"No worries. I won't," I told her, before my father ordered us to get back to work. I watched as my sister slowly rose from the chair and went back to washing dishes while I continued to spread the soapy water across the floor with the mop. Though, now that I thought about it, my sister's relationship with the girl was about as well known as my nickname, "Karma". I'd still keep it a secret though. What kind of sister would I be if I didn't?

 _ **A/N: This was the first chapter of a rewrite I was working on for the story that I unfortunately couldn't finish because of lack of focus and lack of interest for the fandom it's from. I apologize if this messes the story up further. There was actually A LOT I wanted to fix put the pure fact I'm not interested in the show anymore makes it hard to write.**_

 _ **Despite all this, I should point out that most of the main cast is bisexual/pansexual, but I never got to show it much when writing the series, so please keep that in mind ^^**_

 _ **Thank you for reading~**_

 _ **CHAPTER 2:**_

Another day at Li Zhao's. My mother actually helped with the restaurant today. Usually she just stays upstairs where we live. Who knows what she does up there. She probably does crosswords and watches those old soap operas. Ew.

I'd rather watch the samurai movies they feature on channel 4 on TV. Those are awesome. I especially love the movie "Tale of the Purple Samurai". I guess it's a pretty funny movie too, since the samurai has purple hair. Luo doesn't like samurai movies, so I barely ever get to watch them, since she hogs the TV.

I sometimes pretend I'm a samurai while I'm mopping the kitchen. It's actually my dream to one day become a hero like the movie samurai. Now I know what you're thinking. "What kind of seventeen year old girl pretends she's a samurai!?" is probably what you thought, correct? Well guess what? I have a right to be childish when I want. At least I haven't grown dull like the adults.

Unfortunately, while I was messing around in the kitchen, I broke the mop. It was on it's last life anyway. It was giving me splinters, too.

"Karma! This is what happens when you horse around! Great, we have to shell out even more money now just to keep this place spotless." my father grumbled. My mother put a hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down, Hideyoshi. It was on it's last leg anyway." she said. Thank you mother! My father took a deep breath.

"Go to the store and buy a new mop." he said, giving me a ten dollar bill, "Don't dillydally."

I nodded and ran out of the shop.

Sweet freedom! Freedom from my father's grumbling and the smell of the shop all together. I almost did a little dance in the street, but I'm glad I didn't because I could have gotten hit by a passing school bus. I walked into a nearby store and chose a simple mop. My Dad said not to dillydally, so I should probably not go against his wishes, but it felt so great not being in the shop. My parents never really let me or Luo go anywhere. This is all the freedom I get.

As I was walking out of the shop with the newly-bought mop, I heard some yelling in an alleyway nearby. I decided to go investigate. I peeked into the alleyway to see three men surrounding an old lady. I listened to what they were saying.

"Just hand over the purse and keys, lady." one man said.

"Do you three bozos seriously expect me to hand over my purse just like that? I may be old but I am not stupid." the old lady said, clutching her purse. One of the men growled.

"Just hand it over!" he yelled, grabbing it and tugging on it. The old lady had an iron grip, but I knew she wouldn't last long. I quickly pulled the price tag off the mop and ran into the alley. If I truly dream to become a heroic samurai like the ones in the movies, now's my chance. Except instead of wielding a katana, I wield a mop.


	2. Chapter 3

Hey! Haven't you idiots ever learned to respect your elders!?" I yelled, running into the alley. The men turned around to face me.

"Heh, didn't know Oompa Loompas actually existed." one man said, snickering. I glared. So they wanna fight!? I'll give them one!

"I may be short, but I could beat you all in a minute!" I yelled, twirling the stick-end of the mop on my fingers in an effort to intimidate them. Instead, they laughed.

"Just a mop? Are you going to throw a sponge at us, too?" one man laughed.

As they were making fun of me, I saw the old lady escape with her belongings. At least she's safe, but I have these lowlifes tormenting me. I decided I've had enough. I ran up to the first man and struck him across the face with the stick-end of the mop. He stumbled backward then glared at me.

"So smallfry wants to fight?" he smiled. His comrades approached me. I did the only thing my instincts told me to do, see if combat moves from movies work. It's my last resort. I could just run away, but I don't want these thugs following me and hurting my family.

"Don't worry girlie, you won't suffer long." one said. I quickly slid past him, jumped on his back and blinded him by covering his eyes. He growled and I saw his cronies running towards me. I used his head as a boost for a jump. I sailed towards another thug and smacked him with the mop.

I jumped on another's back, but unfortunately, he grabbed my foot and threw me to the ground. I started to get up but another punched me in the face and put his foot on my back, keeping me on the ground. Why must my dreams always get me in trouble? Now I'm probably going to die in this alleyway. Great going me.

I thought about those ninja Luo talks about. She said they come to aid anyone who is in trouble. Well, obviously I'm about to be murdered by street thugs and not a ninja is in sight! I knew Luo lied about that. I knew it.

Suddenly, I felt a bit of fabric swoosh past my face. I heard the rushing of water and the men yelling. The weight of the man's foot was no longer on my back. Why do I hear water though? I looked up and saw a turquoise cape with gold lining the edges. The owner of the cape was hooded, and controlling the water to push the men away. I saw the water carry them away. So a ninja didn't show up, but this cloaked guy showed up. I'm just grateful I wasn't murdered, but I could have handled those idiots on my own.

"Hey! I could have handled those guys on my own!" I shouted. The stranger turned to face me. Their hood had gold lining the edges. They had on some sort of mask that covered their eyes, but white took up the area where eyes should be. The white part had a small honeycomb pattern on it, which means it's high tech. On the collar of their outfit, a gold patch with kanji on it shined. I couldn't read it. Their outfit was almost like a ninja's though, except in turquoise. The left eye of their mask glowed blue for a moment then faded.

"If you could have handled them on your own, I wouldn't have had to save you. You don't know how to defend yourself, don't you?" the stranger asked. Their voice was disguised, making it hard to determine if they were male or female. The disguised voice makes them sound like both.

"I know how to defend myself! I know broomstickijitsu!" I said, holding up my mop.

The right eye of the stranger's mask glowed red for a moment, then faded. "That's a mop." they said. I grumbled under my breath.

"How'd you do that stuff with water though!? That was so cool!" I asked.

"You already know how. Now if you excuse me, I must be going." the stranger said, scaling a building then disappearing onto the roof.

"How do I already know!?" I yelled. Ugh, I wish people would actually tell me things! It frustrates me when someone leaves me hanging like this!

I calmed down and started heading back to Li Zhao's. Mom and Dad are probably going to ask about my bruises. Time to start making up a story.


	3. Chapter 4

After a lengthy lecture from my mom about being late, I went up to Luo and I's room. My story on how I fell on my face seemed to work when explaining the bruise on my cheek to my parents. Luo was the only one who didn't believe me. She pestered me about it, until I finally told her what really happened.

"Woah, so you saw a masked man of some sort?" she said, hints of disbelief in her voice.

"Well, I don't know if it was a man or a woman. I do know that the eyes of their mask could glow in blue or red, and that they're a master of water." I said. Luo looked surprised now.

"Like the ninjas!? Does this person know them?" she asked excitedly.

"I have no idea, I didn't get to talk to them for long." I said. The excitement on my sister's face faded.

I couldn't fall asleep. My mind was way too active. All my questions about the masked person and all my questions on what they meant about me already knowing how to use elemental power. It confused me.

I decided that I would tire myself so I could fall asleep. I first made sure that Luo was asleep, then I opened my window. I crawled through the window and climbed up the ladder by my window. I climbed up to the roof of the building and sat on the ledge. I looked at the lights of the city.

I remember when the city didn't shine like this. I remember when the "new" wasn't in the city's name. I even remember when a huge snake went through the city two years ago. That was crazy. I remember my mother screaming because of the snake's tail breaking a window in the shop.

Suddenly, something caught my eye on the roof of a building nearby. I saw two shadowy figures fighting. I saw the silver gleam of a weapon on one of the figures. I watched their fight, then saw one figure follow. I snuck over there, being careful not to fall.

Once I got over there, I noticed that the armed figure had a turquoise cape lined with gold. The masked person! Weird how I ran into them again.

"Hey! I just ran over to see if I could help you." I said. Their head turned quickly in my direction. The eyes of their mask flashed a dim red for a moment. I saw them sheath their katana.

"What are you doing here?" they asked in a serious tone.

"I just came to help you, and I wanted to ask you a few things." I said. They sighed.

"I don't need help, but what are you asking?" they said.

"What did you mean I already know how to use your powers? I'm so confused," I said. The masked person gave a look of surprise.

"You don't know about your powers? Or are these scanners acting up again?" they said, knocking on the side of their mask.

"I have powers!?" I said in disbelief. It's impossible for me to have powers. I would have known by now!

"Yeah. The scanners say so. These scanners tell who is an elemental master. Doesn't tell me their element, though." the masked person said. I don't believe it, though, I kinda do. It's possible for me to have them.

"Well, second thing, do you know those ninjas? You know, the ones that saved the city according to my sister?" I asked. The masked person had an angered look now.

"No, and I don't want to know them." they said. I could tell they were lying, just by their facial expression. Do they have something against them?

"Now if you excuse me, I need to go." they said, starting to walk away.

"Wait! Could you teach me how to get my powers? And possibly tell me your name?" I asked quickly. They turned.

"Sure. Tomorrow night at ten. And I go by Mizu, nothing else." they said. I watched Mizu disappear into the night. Now I'm way too excited on learning about these powers.


	4. Chapter 5

I quietly snuck out the next night, making sure Luo didn't know I was gone. I stuffed a few books under my blanket to make it look like a body and a head. I don't think she'll notice that I'm gone, but you always have to make sure. I stuffed one of my old dolls under there and let a few locks of hair peek out from the blankets, to make my decoy look more realistic. Despite the doll's hair being black, it was close enough. My hair's a dark enough brown to look black.

I opened the window silently and creeped out. I climbed to the roof and looked around. Mizu didn't clarify on a meeting place, so I assumed that I'd see them somewhere nearby. I saw no sign of a turquoise hood. Maybe Mizu tricked me. I'm not sure, but it could be possible.

"I didn't expect you to be out here so early," I heard a voice from behind me say. I nearly jumped and turned around to see Mizu. I noticed some strands of blonde hair sticking out from their hood.

"How did you-!? I just got here!" I said, weirded out by how fast Mizu was able to sneak up on me.

"No time to explain. You have to be that silent when sneaking out, though. Now, follow me," Mizu said. Mizu jumped to another roof and slid down a ladder. Now how am I supposed to do all that!? I nearly missed the jump to the roof, and I only climbed down the ladder, for fear that I would fall and break my spine, like I almost did earlier when jumping to the roof. Mizu stood in the alleyway.

"I assume you don't know how to climb either?" Mizu said.

"No, you just move around too fast. I'm not used to this like you," I said in an annoyed tone. This person really expects way too much out of me.

"You have to learn how to move around quickly if you want to survive a fight," Mizu said, crossing their arms.

"Still, you should have at least waited up for me," I said, glaring. I'm not so sure if I like Mizu now.

Mizu took me over to one of the parks and tried to teach me there. Nothing happened, nothing at all. All that happened is that I know how to defend myself now. I'm starting to think that Mizu was lying about me being an elemental master. Obviously if I was one, I would have unlocked it by now. Weird thing though, I saw police cars drive by. They were heading towards the center of the city. Now what could be going on there? Who knows. Crazy stuff's always happening there. It makes you wonder why they built Borg Industries there. The architects must be crazy, too.


	5. Chapter 6

"Seiko! Seiko! Seiko! Wake up!" I heard my sister's voice yelling. She was shaking my shoulder vigorously. I grumbled. Can't I just get five more minutes of sleep?

"Ugh, what is it Luo?" I said, sitting up slowly.

"You need to see the news. Now," Luo said with a serious look on her face.

"I'm too tired to listen to whatever report the news has on that Cyrus Borg weirdo," I said.

"It's not that!" Luo said. She picked me up and ran downstairs.

"Hey! Just because I'm short doesn't mean I need to be carried!" I shouted, squirming. She ran into the dining room and put me down.

"Look on the TV screen," she said. I directed my attention on the TV to see a report about a group rallying in the middle of the city. Three police officers died when some group members attacked them.

"Stupid teenagers thinking they can do anything in this city," my father said as he dried a glass cup off with a rag.

"What's this group all about? Why are they attacking the police officers?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. They did mention they're a group called 'The Liberators' or something," Luo said. I felt a little worried. What does this group plan to do next and what is their purpose?

That night, I met up with Mizu again. They gave me an outfit.

"You can't really travel quietly in a T-shirt and jeans, so I got you these," Mizu said. They allowed me some time to change. I got to say, I love this outfit. It's almost like Mizu's, except mine is sleeveless and includes a scarf and the shirt-like thing is so long it's like a skirt. I kinda spun around in it.

"We should get moving. I need to meet up with someone, I hope you don't mind coming along," Mizu said.

"Well, I got nothing better to do," I said, shrugging.

I can't decide if I want to call Mizu a he or she. It sounds so weird calling Mizu a they, but it's hard to tell if Mizu is a boy a girl. Their cape is always covering their body. The only thing I know is that Mizu tends to lie and has blonde hair.

We walked on rooves, until we came to a street corner, where a boy in a white hoodie and black beanie stood.

"That's Anthony, if you have something you want to know, he knows it all...except the square root of 15," Mizu said.

"So if I ask him what the meaning of life is-" I was interrupted by Mizu saying "I was exaggerating,".

"Maybe I can ask him about 'The Liberators'," I thought. We went down the ladder on the side of the building. He looked our way once we walked out of the alleyway. He had royal blue eyes and light brown hair that was pretty shaggy.

"Well well well, if it isn't Batman Jr! And you actually have a Robin this time! Why's the Robin so short though?" Anthony joked. I glared.

"Let's be serious. I wanted to introduce you to Karma," Mizu said.

"Ah, well, nice to meet you, little lady," Anthony said, leaning on the wall. I glared when he said "little".

"Listen, I wanted to ask a question," I said, "Do you know anything about 'The Liberators'?"

"Well, I know they're a group against the government. Led by two people saying a spirit told them to, ha religious people, am I right? Anyway, I don't know much except the two leaders are twin siblings," Anthony said.

"Any idea why they killed three policemen this morning?" Mizu asked. Anthony rubbed his chin for a moment.

"It could be that the policemen were trying to stop them. That's all that I can tell," he said. Mizu sighed.

"Thanks for the information, Anthony."

So Mizu is concerned about what this group is too. I'm pretty sure the whole city is concerned though.


	6. Chapter 7

I've started calling Mizu and I the "Midnight Two". Sounds cool, huh? I mean, we're always out past midnight and there's only two of us. It kinda sounds like a superhero duo name. I guess we are like superheroes, kind of. We plan to stop 'The Liberators', so that counts, right?

Because of being out so late, I'm tired in the mornings after Mizu's training sessions. I'm trying to sneak naps in during work, and so far I've been successful. Luo's the only one who knows I'm sleeping on the job, but she doesn't tell our parents.

That night, Mizu and I watched the city lights. Mizu took me into the central, or heart of the city. I could sense something was amiss while we were there, but what could it be? I saw nothing wrong, but the streets were empty. It was odd. I thought the heart of the city is always bustling. This looks nothing like a busy city. Maybe they have a curfew? I really hope Mizu and I aren't violating it.

"Isn't it weird there's no cars on the streets?" I asked. Mizu nodded.

"They could have a curfew I didn't know about in place. Who knows," Mizu said, looking around. I looked around as well, and thought I saw a few shadows move out of the corner of my eye. When I turned, I saw nothing.

"Did you see that?" I asked.

"See what?" Mizu said.

"Those shadows!"

"Yeah, we have shadows. Is that new to you?"

"No! I saw shadows on the rooves,"

"You're probably seeing things," Mizu said, turning away. Mizu started walking towards the next roof when a robotic voice said "Stop at once," We both turned to see what looked like men in black robes. They had red and green eyes. They wore some pretty lame and horrible police outfits.

"You bozos don't look like police men!" I yelled.

"That's because they're not, Karma," Mizu said, the right eye of their mask glowing a dull red. I saw Mizu rest a hand on the handle of their katana.

"Drop your weapons," a monotone voice from the group of robots said. I saw Mizu smirk.

"Alright then," Mizu said in a nicer tone. I saw Mizu drop the weapon, but Mizu caught it before it hit the ground. In one swift motion, Mizu threw the katana right into one of the receptors of the robots. He fell to the ground, making a noise similar to a toy's when it has a low battery. I saw Mizu take something from their belt. Mizu threw it to me.

"Use that!" Mizu shouted. I looked at it. It was like one of those laser guns you see in sci-fi movies. I saw one of the robot guys running at me, so I aimed it. Hopefully this is a gun, or I'm screwed. I pulled the trigger and missed. I tried three more times, but I missed all three times. I decided at this point that my best bet was to run. I slid past the robot guy and ran. I ran past Mizu and heard Mizu make a sigh of disappointment.

I saw Mizu make some kind of light blue sphere, then it exploded into a huge wave of water. It wiped out the robot guys, and nearly made me slide off the roof. Mizu walked up to me.

"I think I need to talk to Anthony about getting you a weapon," Mizu said, "I need to ask him about these weird robots anyway,"

We returned to the same street corner as last time, but we walked on the sidewalk this time. I could see Anthony leaning on the wall like last time, but he wasn't facing us. Mizu froze and pushed me back a little bit. One eye of Mizu's mask glowed a dim blue, while the other glowed a dim red.

"What's wrong?" I whispered. Mizu continued to push me back a little bit and backed up themself.

"That's not Anthony," Mizu whispered.

"How do you know?" I asked. Mizu seemed a little surprised about this person.

"Because," Mizu started in a whisper, "Anthony's not an elemental master."


	7. Chapter 8

"Why would someone be disguised as Anthony though?" I asked in a whisper. Mizu looked worried now.

"I have no idea. This person obviously is after one of the people he's in connection with. Karma, could you please just stay here?" Mizu asked. I don't exactly trust Mizu yet, but by the facial expression, I know they're concerned for me. I'd rather come along though.

"Could I stand a few feet away? If you want me to learn how to fight and such, I need to experience it more," I asked. Mizu sighed.

"But Karma, this is differ-" I interrupted Mizu.

"Mizu, you can trust me," I said. Mizu's worried expression faded, then they nodded.

"Alright, but be careful," Mizu said. I can't believe this stranger's worried. Mizu seemed so calm and emotionless at first. I feel like I'm seeing a different person. I followed Mizu towards the impostor for a moment, then stayed back to where I could see and hear them.

"Evening, Anthony," Mizu said in a friendlier tone.

"Evening, Mizu, how's your business going?" the impostor said. The impostor is horrible at disguising his voice. He barely sounds like Anthony. I have to give him credit for knowing who Mizu is, considering Mizu told me that Anthony is connected with a ton of people.

"Oh, it's fine, listen...I have a question," Mizu said.

"Ask away," the impostor said. He's trying really hard to sound like Anthony. He's failing horribly though. Hard to believe this impostor is supposed to be an elemental master. He doesn't sound like an intelligent one.

Mizu smirked. "Why are you so bad at disguising as other people?" Mizu said. The impostor looked surprised, and a little scared. Mizu put a katana to his neck before he could do anything. "You could have at least tried to get some blue contacts and could have used makeup to cover up that little scar of yours. You also need to work on your impersonation skills," Mizu said.

"Well, excuse me, they don't exactly have an acting school in New Ninjago City," the impostor said. Actually, yes they do. This guy really isn't intelligent.

"Now tell me, why are you disguised as Anthony?" Mizu said in a more serious tone.

"Maybe because I wanted to," the impostor said in a smart tone. Mizu held the katana closer to his neck. It literally looked like Mizu was cutting him now.

"Here's some advice: Don't be a smartass and you'll survive," Mizu said harshly, "Now answer my question,"

"Fine. I know you're working with whoever's leading 'The Liberators'," the impostor said.

"I barely even know who they are," Mizu said.

"You should know, since you work with the guy who's the leader of it," the impostor rolled his eyes.

"I don't know who told you this, but obviously they're wrong," Mizu said.

"Don't lie, it won't help you," the impostor said, his eyes shifting to look at both sides of the street.

"I'm not lying," Mizu said firmly. Suddenly, a fireball exploded between them, causing Mizu to tumble and skid across the road.

"I told you, lying won't help you," the impostor said. Mizu started to get up, their hood coving their face, with long locks of light blond hair hanging from the hood now. I saw Mizu's mask lying on the street. I looked at the impostor. He stood there now.

"I don't want to use force," he said. I saw Mizu get up. The hood fell back, revealing the long locks of light blonde hair and ocean blue eyes. Mizu's a girl. How could I not tell before?

"Well, it's too late for that now. Considering what you just did," Mizu said. Her voice sounded a little more feminine now, despite still being deeper. The mask must have disguised her voice. She picked up her katana and pointed it towards him.

"Alright then, I see how it is," the impostor said. He spun in a red tornado, and then stood in a red suit, like a ninja's. He held a sword. He looks kind of familiar. It took a moment to hit me. He's the red ninja from that one ninja team Luo loves! She'd be freaking out if she was here.

I was too lost in thought to realize Mizu and the red ninja were fighting. Their blades clashed, Mizu using water, the red ninja using fire. In terms of science, wouldn't Mizu win? I mean, water extinguishes fire, unless it's an electrical fire.

"Just give up already!" the red ninja shouted.

"I'm sorry but my parents aren't ignorant and taught me to never give up!" Mizu shouted.

"Are you saying my parents are stupid!?" the red ninja yelled, offended.

"Sure, if that's how you want to interpret it!" Mizu yelled back. This argument and insult fest is starting to sound hilarious.

The fighting got to the point where the red ninja cut Mizu across the face. I decided to step in then.

"Hey! Stop! You've got the wrong person!" I yelled. I put my hand forward to push the guy in red, but all of the sudden, a purple orb surrounded my hand. It launched forward and sent the red ninja backward, making him tumble across the street. What did I just do!?

Mizu looked surprised. I could see blood leaking from her face.

"Come on, Karma, let's go," she said, running off. I followed her, despite the red ninja yelling to stop. What was that orb thing!? I feel scared now, but a little excited. That could have been the elemental powers that Mizu was talking about, but I'm scared that they aren't mine, and someone helped me. I hope that's not what happened.


	8. Chapter 9

"Mizu! Do you know him!?" I asked, running to catch up with her. She climbed up a ladder and I followed. She stopped on the roof of a building.

"No. I don't," she said. By the tone of her voice, it was obvious she was lying. I didn't pester her about it though.

"Did you see what I did though!? What was that!?" I asked, excitement in my voice.

"That's probably your element, but I can't tell what it would be," Mizu said. I noticed her face was bleeding.

"Mizu...your face," I said. She looked confused.

"What?" she asked. She touched her forehead then looked at her fingers. "Oh," she said silently, "I'll be fine,". I was still worried though. I'd be freaking out over my face bleeding, but it seems like she just doesn't care. I still wonder why she lies.

My mother got mad when I slept through the alarm on my alarm clock. I couldn't help it, I was out until three am last night. Unfortunately, my mom made me work anyway, and I was like a zombie the whole day. I'm pretty sure I creeped a customer out because of how I acted like a zombie. Oops.

I shot that orb again while I was cleaning the kitchen. It destroyed the sink unfortunately. I noticed the orb was purple though, and evidently makes things explode, like the sink. I covered it up by telling my parents a flame was near our cleaning chemicals. It seemed to work, but they didn't ask why fire was near the sink.

We have to buy a new sink now, thanks to my elemental power deciding to destroy what it wants. This power must have a thing against fights and sinks.


	9. Chapter 10

Mizu hasn't come by in nearly a week. I'm a little worried. Did I do something wrong? Did I mess something up? Did I make her mad by asking her a ton of questions? I wouldn't blame her if she got mad, I can be quite annoying. Maybe that's why.

My father's been really mad about the broken sink. He acts like I meant to break it, or says I'm trying to destroy the family business. Really though, if I was trying to destroy the family business, I would have done much more than that.

I ranted in my head as I mopped the floors. My father's such an idiot. He always thinks I'm trying to make us homeless, always thinks I'm trying to steal money, and always thinks I'm trying to destroy the family business. He thinks the same thing about Luo. I can't wait for the day I move out and get my own job, but Luo's twenty seven years old and she still lives here. Looks like I'm stuck here forever.

Let's face it though, my father probably only cares about money. It's the same issue many people in the world have. They value money instead of family. It's almost as if greed is a contagious disease now. Hopefully scientists can find a cure for that.

I heard some customers walk in as I mopped by the kitchen. I heard Luo gasp. She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the kitchen.

"Ow! What was that for?" I asked, rubbing my arm.

"Karma, did you see who just walked in?" Luo said, surprise still on her face.

"No. You pulled me into the kitchen before I could look," I said, "Lemme guess, another guy you suddenly have a crush on?".

"No," Luo said, "It's Lloyd Garmadon. The green ninja. He just walked in with his family. Oh I can't believe he's here! Why would he come here of all places?". I admit it's odd that someone like that would come here, but did Luo even consider that we may have been the closest restaurant at the time? My mother opened the kitchen door just then.

"Karma, you mind taking customers' orders for me? I need a break," she said, looking tired. I really don't understand how she's tired already.

"I don't mind," I said, taking the notepad and handing the mop to Luo. I walked out of the kitchen and looked over at this Lloyd guy and his family. It looked like he was with his grandparents...or his parents are just really old. Lloyd had slightly disheveled blonde hair, which was in the same style as his grandfather/father's. Everyone was in casual dress except for the old man. It looked like he dressed up to go to the second century or something. I decided I should stop standing around and go take their order.

They were in the middle of a conversation when I walked up. I waited until they reached a stopping point, then I talked. See? I'm much more polite than other waitresses.

"Good afternoon, welcome to Li Zhao's. May I take your order?" I said in my friendliest voice possible.

"They have children work here?" Lloyd said. You know what!? I don't care how powerful people say he is, I'll fight him right here right now!

"Uh, I'm seventeen. If my dad hired children, he'd be arrested," I said with a little nervous laugh.

"Ah, I'm sorry for my son's rude behavior," the woman said. So they are his parents. Geez, either he's much older than I think or he was born late.

"Oh no, it's fine," I said politely, "I get it all the time," I took their orders and went to the kitchen to give Luo the paper. She was giggling once I walked in there.

"He called you a kid," she laughed. I grumbled under my breath.

"Obviously he needs glasses," I said.

"But my theory is true," Luo laughed, "you do look like a kid," I took the mop and knocked her on the side of the head with the handle.

"Ooh little sister wants to fight big sister," Luo giggled, "Challenge accepted,"

I knew she was probably going to tickle me to death, but I stood as if we really were fighting. Right before she could reach me, the purple orbs came out of my hands again and hit her, pushing her into the wall and knocking her unconscious. What have I done!? I...I hurt my sister! I looked to see that the doors of the kitchen were blown off. My parents and the customers were staring, even the Garmadons.

I noticed there was a dim purple glow around my hands. I heard my father yell.

"Seiko Tsubaki Lee! What is this!? What did you do to your sister!?" he shouted. Great, he called me by my actual and full name. Why I'm called Karma is a LONNGGG story. I'll tell it later. My father started to walk towards me, but I held out my hands.

"Please, it was just an accident! Leave me alone!" I yelled. The purple orbs came from my hands again and hit my father, knocking him down. I gasped. What's wrong with me!? I looked around, everyone's wide-eyed stares making me feel like a monster. I turned and ran upstairs, throwing off my waitress apron, leaving me in just my casual clothing. I locked my bedroom door and started stuffing a shoulder bag with essentials. The outfit Mizu gave me, my journal, three pens, and a bottle of water were in there.

I could hear someone beating on the door. "Karma dear, please come out. It's alright. We can talk this out," my mother said on the other side of the door.

"I could probably help. Please, just listen to your mother," I heard Lloyd's voice. I shook my head and opened my window. I climbed up to the roof. I ran roof to roof, leaving behind the restaurant, my home. I can't be near Luo anymore. I'm afraid of hurting her again, or anyone else.

Where will I sleep now? The question lingered in my head as I ran. I could sleep in the trees at the park. I could try sleeping on one of the rooves, or maybe I can just leave this city. I'm pretty sure word has already spread that there's a crazy girl injuring people out there.

I need to find Mizu.


	10. Chapter 11

I ran to the intersection where we saw Anthony the last few times. She'd be talking to him or something again, right? Or maybe she avoids this place because of what happened last time. I doubt that guy would come back around here after his cover is blown, unless he really is _that_ stupid.

No one was at the intersection, but I hid anyway. As I said, I'm pretty sure word had already gotten out that there's a crazy witch girl attacking people. This isn't the way I wanted to be known. I wanted to be known as the fearless samurai who saved this dear city. A samurai the ninja could never defeat. A samurai that is remembered for centuries. Instead, I'm known as a psychotic witch girl who tried to kill her father and sister.

I untied the ribbon in my hair and let my hair fall out of it's neat bun. I let it cover my face and pulled my knees to my face. What happened was just an accident. Why am I beating myself up over it? I guess it's the fact of hurting my family. I don't want to go back and I can't. If I go back they'll call the police. I don't want to go to jail for doing something on accident.

I started to feel tears streaming down my face. What if Mizu hears the news and sees me as a threat too? Then I'd really have no one to go to. I'd be on my own. I'd probably die of starvation in a month.

"You know, you could have waited at your house for me instead of coming all this way," a voice said. It startled me and woke me from my sleep. I must have dozed off while crying. I sat up and brushed my hair out of my face. I saw Mizu in here usual outfit, hood and all, minus the mask.

"I...I can't live there anymore.." I said with a mix of guilt and sadness in my voice.

"Why not? Your parents decide to kick you out so you'll go to college or something?" Mizu asked, looking confused. How could she not know?

"You haven't heard what happened!?" I asked in disbelief.

"Listen, I don't stay connected with the news. I'd rather ignore it because 90% of the time, they're just telling you bullcrap they want you to believe," she said. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, good, you won't immediately judge me as a threat then," I said, relived. Mizu gave a confused look.

"A threat!?" she started to laugh, "Karma, you're like a rabbit, too cute to be a threat."

I didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or insult. "Well, I should tell you the story then," I started. I told her everything that happened, from the Garmadons coming to the restaurant to now. She gave a look of disgust when I mentioned Lloyd, but was surprised when I talked about my powers.

"So, it happened without your control...and you saw that overglorified idiot," Mizu said. I nodded. I wouldn't technically call Lloyd an idiot, I mean, he did offer to help me.

"Lloyd did offer to help me," I said.

"Don't trust him," Mizu said immediately. Geez, what's her damage with these guys?

"Well, be relieved I didn't see the red guy," I said.

"Yeah," Mizu said, still showing some disgust.

"It's still funny you two fight like a married couple," I said. I saw Mizu's cheeks become a little red.

"We're not married. I'd kill myself if we were," she said. I gave my oh-hon-i-know-you-wouldn't face.

Mizu gave an annoyed sigh. "Come with me," she said, walking off.


	11. Chapter 12

"Welcome to _mi casa,_ " Mizu said, opening the door to a room in an apartment building. The door had a paper taped to it with a large red X on it.

I pointed at it. "What's that there for?" I asked. Mizu looked at it.

"Ahaha...the owner of this building doesn't like me. In fact, he tried to hit me with a vacuum cleaner last time he saw me. That was two months ago," she said. "Let me tell you a little secret, he doesn't know I still live here."

I followed her into the room and saw that her bed was just a blanket and pillow on the floor.

"Doesn't your back get stiff from sleeping on the floor?" I asked. Mizu shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm used to sleeping on the floor. I've been doing it for years," she said. She walked behind the changing shield in the room. I took it as a sign she was changing clothes.

"You actually have clothes other than that suit?" I asked. Mizu poked her head out from the changing shield with a are-you-serious look. Okay, I guess I can ask really dumb questions.

"Yeah, I actually have a life outside of beating the crap out of thieves," Mizu said. She walked out from behind the changing shield in a black jacket with a gray shirt underneath and gray pants. I noticed she has a scar on her face now from that cut.

"So, you have a scar now?" I asked. Mizu shook her head.

"It's just a cut right now, it'll heal," she said as she took a seat on the floor, "I swear if I see that guy again I'll shove a sword up his a-"

"That's a little extreme," I said, taking a seat near her.

"I've said worse," Mizu shrugged. I shivered. She must have a much more colorful vocabulary then.

"So, um, what's your real name?" I asked. Mizu looked startled for a moment, then looked at me.

"What?" she asked.

"Come on, I know 'Mizu' isn't your real name. Your parents wouldn't name you 'water'," I said. Mizu glared. Evidently Mizu doesn't know that 'mizū' means 'water' in Japanese.

"I don't tell anyone my real name," she said sternly, "and I never will."

I tried to think of something that would change the topic.

"Well then, uh...do you have any parents?" I asked. It was a lame topic changer, but at least I tried.

"Obviously," Mizu said, "Otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here in front of you."

"I mean, what do they do for a living?" I asked.

She sighed. "I have no idea what my father does anymore, but my mother used to do the same things I do. She used to hunt criminals, and started hunting Serpentine tribes four years ago. Nearly got herself killed a few times, but now she's some sort of criminal. I haven't talked to her for ten years, so I don't know," Mizu said, staring at the ceiling. I gasped.

"Ten years? So that means you were away from your parents for ten years?" I asked.

"Yeah, I ran away when I was ten. I didn't want to be like her. Now look at me, ten years later and I'm beating up thieves," she said. So she's 20, three years older than me.

"But you're not a criminal like she is now," I said.

"Yeah, but seeing how life is going, I technically already am," Mizu said, staring out a window, "I stole food a few times, I stole these blankets, and I techincally am living in this apartment illegally...but I had to do all this to live."

Mizu lied down on the blanket, still facing the wall. "Sometimes I wish people didn't become criminals because they wanted to live. I wish the homeless weren't arrested for getting food for their family. I wish they weren't arrested for protecting themselves. I wish everyone could live the good life," she said. I lied down on the blanket I borrowed. She didn't speak after that, and I assumed she was sleeping.

I took a moment to think about what she said. I wish the same things. If everyone could live the good life, my family would be living in a mansion. I wouldn't have to share a room with Luo. I wouldn't have to work everyday, and we'd have all the current technology! It's a dream that's too far to reach though. I doubt Li Zhao's will ever become as popular as Chen's Noodlehouse. I felt bad for running away now, but I know I can't go back.


	12. Chapter 13

My back hurt from lying on the floor, but really I had no other choice, unless I really wanted to ditch Mizu. I didn't want to ditch her, so I stuck around. Of course, I'll have a stiff back for a while, but I wasn't going to complain. Cavepeople slept this way their whole life. Although that was some five million years ago, I was sure humans today could sleep like that without any major injury.

I woke up to the sound of footsteps. Mizu was pacing in front of the window, wearing her turquoise outfit. She looked over at me.

"You sure sleep for a long time," she said. What time is it anyway? Can't be past eight.

"I usually have to get up at eight. That's not a long time unless you're one of those people who get up at three AM," I said, standing up. Mizu was silent for a moment, then sighed.

"I guess it seems like a long time when you stare out a window," she said quietly. I went behind the changing shield and changed into the outfit she gave me a week ago. I was happy to be able to wear the magenta scarf again. She looked surprised when I walked out.

"You don't need to wear that, but I suppose it's better than coming back here to change," Mizu said, reverting her attention back to what's outside. I started to notice that she had some sort of sadness in her eyes. Her expression looked a little upset as well. Maybe she misses her parents? I can't tell.

Suddenly, the door opened and a balding man stepped in. He was a little pudgy and looked to be in his mid-fifties. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed us and his expression angered.

"Didn't I tell you to get out of here!?" he said angrily. Mizu yawned. I noticed the cape she originally had wasn't a part of her outfit anymore.

"You tell that to Ms. Mayuki every time someone walks by, yet you let her stay. So, I thought I could stay, too," Mizu said coolly. The man balled his hands into fists, but they stayed at his sides.

"Lilly...I'm-" he was interrupted by Mizu grabbing him by the throat and slamming him into the wall. He coughed.

"Don't call me that," Mizu said in a harsh tone. Her expression had darkened into a furious one. The man continued to cough. Why is she reacting this way to that name? I couldn't help but wonder if it was her actual name. Mizu dropped him.

"You're not welcome here," the man said, but then his eyes shifted to me and he made a tiny smile, "but your friend can st-"

"Good. I didn't want to live in an apartment building where the landlord kicks out everyone except the countless numbers of women he flirts with. I'm not letting this girl go through the same torture. Your wife would be very disappointed in your actions, Merl." Mizu said in a harsh tone, "Come on, Karma."

I picked up my bag and followed her out the door, a little creeped out by that man, Merl. I noticed she took nothing with her.

"What about your other clothes?" I asked once we got in the alley.

"I don't need them," she said. She's really starting to weird me out now. I guess she wanted a lighter load while traveling though.

Once nighttime hit, we sat on a rooftop, eating crêpes. I didn't question how Mizu got these. She probably stole them, or bought them. Both are a possibility.

"So," I started, "is 'Lilly' really your first name?"

She was silent for a very long time. I was worried that I made her mad.

"Sure," she said finally. I didn't know if she meant that I can call her that, or that's her name. I didn't ask. We heard a beeping sound a few minutes later.

"What was that?" I said, looking around. Mizu shrugged.

"Could have been a piece of machinery," she said, finishing her crêpe. I guess it could be, but the beeping continued to get louder and faster. I finished my crêpe and got up. I looked around for the source of the noise. Mizu got up and walked to the other side of the rooftop. She stopped suddenly.

"What's wrong?" I asked. Suddenly, I noticed the red retinas of receptors in front of us.

"It's those robots again," Mizu whispered.


	13. Chapter 14

I froze. "The robots!? I thought we destroyed them all...there's only supposed to be six, right?" I said nervously.

Mizu shook her head. "Someone might be mass producing them to make an army," she said quietly. The robots' heads turned to look at us. I watched Mizu wrap her hand around the handle of the katana.

"Stop. You are trespassing in an-" the robot started to say, but it was stopped when Mizu stabbed it right in the receptor. The robot's glowing red eyes became black. It didn't move. The other robots were now alert.

"Karma, take this," Mizu said, handing me a knife, "Since I know you don't really know how to use your powers yet." I nodded and took a look at it. It was almost like a hunting knife. The handle had a few scratches on it though. I focused my attention on the robots now. They didn't quite look like ninjas this time. In fact, they were almost like a skeleton.

I swung the knife, cutting off the arm of it. I didn't even realize I cut the wire part. I guess that's the key, unless I want to sit here all night trying to hack one arm to pieces. I looked for another wired part on the robot's leg, then cut it. One down, more to go. I looked over at Mizu, what had already taken down four, and used her elemental power to get rid of the rest.

"That should be the last of them," Mizu said, panting a little bit. She took the knife back, closing it and putting it in one of the pouches on her belt.

"Let's get going, before I have to face off with those guys again," Mizu said, walking to the next roof. I followed her, but suddenly a searing, burning pain exploded in my leg. I cried out as my leg went limp from the pain and I fell onto the ground. Mizu ran over to me.

"Karma, are you alright!?" she said, worry in her voice.

"My leg..." I said, starting to get up, "I'm fine. Maybe just a bug bite...haha."

Mizu shook her head and looked at my leg.

"What shot you!?" she questioned. So that's what it was.

"I have no id-" before I could continue, a shower of red lazer beams surrounded us. One grazed the side of my right arm. I felt Mizu pick me up and she started running.

"These damn robots," she grumbled. Suddenly, she yelped and we both tumbled to the ground. Mizu kept cursing under her breath.

"Hold your breath, Karma," she said. I breathed in and held it. I could feel water rushing around me. It was cold, but it soothed my wounds a bit. I held my breath until I couldn't feel the water around me anymore.

"You OK?" Mizu asked, shaking my shoulder.

"I'm fine. Just in pain, haha," I said, sitting up. There were lifeless robots all over the roof.

"Come on, let's-" Mizu started to say something, but stopped, her face showing pain. Her hand fell over her foot. "I forgot I was shot in the ankle," she said, cursing under her breath.I heard footsteps. I felt scared. Looks like were stuck in a pickle, huh? We can't stay here, but we're injured and it's difficult to move. We're gonna die, aren't we?

Mizu threw my arm over her shoulder and assisted me. A thought went through my head then. Shouldn't I be the one helping her? I don't think my injuries are that severe. Then again, it's really painful to move my leg. She started slowly walking towards the next roof.

I started to follow her, cringing every time I took a step, but I stopped. A figure stood on the roof now, blades shaped like crescents in in their hands

"Who destroyed my robots?" a female voice said with a thick French accent. Just when I thought we were safe.


	14. Chapter 15

"So, you created those things that attacked us?" Mizu asked. The woman stepped into the light. She had pale skin, long auburn hair, hazel eyes, and it was pretty obvious she had makeup on. She wore some kind of short, gray layered dress. She didn't look fit to fight.

"I didn't create them. I own them. What was going through you two vandals' minds!?" the woman shouted.

"Vandals!? They attacked us!" Mizu shouted back. I thought I heard footsteps again.

"Maybe they had a reason to. They don't particularly like trespassers," the woman said. Mizu gave her an are-you-kidding-me look.

"Look, we just want to go home. We didn't mean any trouble," she said, sounding a little frustrated.

"You didn't mean any trouble, yet you destroyed the robots," the woman said.

"Listen! I just want to get home! My friend and I are injured. We don't have time for this!" Mizu snapped. The woman crossed her arms.

"Tsk, don't be so rude, darling. I just want you to fess up the truth that you both are vandals," she said with a falsely sweet voice. Mizu made an annoyed face.

"Whatever. Let's go, Karma," Mizu said, turning away and trying to assist me to the other side of the roof.

"Quite rude to walk away like that," the woman said, jumping in our path. She threw one of her crescent blades, which were like boomerangs and came back to her. The blade missed my cheek by an inch and Mizu's shoulder by an inch. The woman threw another crescent blade, flying directly at Mizu's eye. Before it could even hit her eye, someone jumped in front of us and stopped it with a bamboo walking stick.

"Marléne, I don't think your boss would be happy if he knew you were wasting your time on two girls instead of replacing the broken andriods," the figure said. I assumed he was male because of his voice. Marléne made a disgusted face, then jumped away. Okay, that woman is weird.

"Are you two alright?" the man said, turning around. I recognized him immediately. The gray hair styled like his son's, the green eyes, the gray and black robes. Lloyd's father. Crap, he'd recognize me as a threat immediately. He'd be like "Hey, aren't you that girl who nearly killed her father and sister while my family was eating?" Mizu and I wouldn't be trusted then.

"If you count injuries as being alright, Sensei," Mizu said. Mizu's a student of his!? I mean, she did call him "sensei".

"Well, Lillian, I could take you and your friend back to the Monastery. I'm sure Misako can help you two out," he said.

"Please don't call me that," Mizu said.

"Why? It's your name. Do you not like it?" Lloyd's father asked.

"No...let's just go," Mizu said, "My ankle is killing me."

Lloyd's father nodded and whistled. A green dragon landed on the roof. A boy with light blonde hair and green eyes sat on it. He was familiar as well.

"You called?" Lloyd said.


	15. Chapter 16

I tried to hide behind Mizu as we rode the dragon to the Monastery. Mizu was too busy talking to Lloyd and his father to notice.

"So, Lilly, who is your friend? She seems to like to hide behind you a lot," Lloyd said. Mizu muttered under her breath when he said her real name.

"She doesn't usually hide behind me," she said, "What's the deal, Karma?"

"I...uh..." I started. Mizu leaned to the side, revealing me. Great, they're going to remember me and see me as a threat. I saw Lloyd's father look back. He gave a little look of surprise.

"You're that girl from the noodle shop, aren't you?" he said. I felt panic.

"Don't see me as a threat sir! All that happened that day at the noodle shop was purely accidenta-" I stopped when I heard him give a little chuckle.

"We don't see you as a threat. You're unfamiliar with your elemental powers. Trust me, my brother has seen worse destruction. One of his students nearly burnt down his monastery," Lloyd's father said, "If you'd like, I can help you learn how to use them and gain full control of them."

I hesitated a moment. "Okay, I'd appreciate that," I smiled.

We landed at a monastery near a village. We walked in to see no one there except for a woman with gray hair tied into a braid. Where's the rest of Lloyd's teammates? The woman looked over at us and smiled.

"Welcome back. I see you brought friends," she said.

"Misako, could you please help these two out? One can't even move her leg," Lloyd's father asked. I recognized this woman. She's Lloyd's mother. She looks more like his grandmother to be honest. Misako nodded and helped Mizu and I to a room. She wrapped up Mizu's ankle and examined my leg.

"Looks like the ammunition in the guns paralyze whatever it touches," she said, "The paralysis doesn't last long though."

Mizu sighed. "At least it didn't hit our heads," she said. Misako nodded. She wrapped the injury on my leg in bandage.

"Okay, you're all set," she smiled.

"Thanks, Misako," Mizu said. Misako nodded again.

"Um, I have a question," I said. Misako and Mizu looked over at me.

"Shouldn't there be more people here? I mean, I remember seeing Lloyd having at least four other teammates," I said.

"Well," Misako started, a slight sad look on her face, "it wasn't too long ago that we lost Zane and they split ways. Garmadon and Lloyd want to bring the team back together though."

Mizu looked a bit sad. "I didn't know that. I'm going to miss that guy. He was fun," she said. Misako nodded.

"Garmadon told me he was going to have Lloyd try to get the team back together tonight, especially because of the rising threat of The Liberators," she said.

"Last I saw, The Liberators attacked policemen," I said.

"Oh, no," Misako said, "They've done worse."

"The woman that attacked you two tonight, Marléne Chaput, has a high rank in The Liberators," Garmadon said, walking in, "They've also damaged the houses of very important people in Ninjago City."

He turned to Misako. "I sent Lloyd out in hopes of getting everyone back. It may be difficult to get Cole and Jay to get along though," he said.

"They get in a fight or something?" Mizu asked.

"They were fighting over Nya, but I'm sure they'll get along," Garmadon said. Mizu rolled her eyes.

"Why don't they just let Nya choose who she wants?" she said.

"They're a mystery to me," Garmadon sighed, "now, I have a few questions to ask."

Great, is this going to be like school? Or is there going to be weird questions?

"Do you know spinjitsu?" he asked.


	16. Chapter 17

"Sensei Garmadon, don't you think that's an odd question to ask? Especially since she's new to all this?" Mizu said.

"Well, there are some people that know it that haven't been taught by me or Wu. In fact, her mother seemed very familiar to me," Garmadon said.

I waited a moment, then said "I do not know what it is."

"It's like this," Mizu said. She put one foot behind the other and spun, a cerulean tornado swirling around her. I was captivated by it. How does she do it? She stopped, stumbling a little bit.

"How do I do that!?" I asked, amazed.

"It's quite simple, really," Mizu said.

"I don't know, Lilly, it can be quite complicated as well," Garmadon said.

"Either way, I still want to learn how to do that!" I said, smiling. Garmadon chuckled.

"Considering your leg, I don't think you can learn today, but maybe sometime later," he said, "I'd prefer that you two get some rest."

Mizu and I shared a room that night. I decided to ask her how she knew everyone here.

"I became one of Sensei Garmadon's students after he had this monastery built. He discovered I had elemental powers, so he kinda took me in. Hence why I know the ninja. I never really got to go do any of the fun stuff like they did though, so I went off on my own after a bit," Mizu said after I asked.

"Another question," I started, "Could I call you Lilly instead of Mizu?"

She was quiet for a moment, then said "Why not? Everyone's calling me it now."

I waited a moment, then said "Could I tell you something?"

Lilly looked over at me and nodded.

"Karma's not my real name, just like Mizu isn't yours," I said, "My name's Seiko, but I don't like that name. So instead, my parents called me Karma because, well, if someone ever does something bad, I tend to give them what they deserve. My sister stole something from a store once, and then the next day I stole one of her dresses. Weird story, I know."

"Seiko? I actually kinda like that name," Lilly said.

"I'd prefer if you continue calling me Karma though," I said. Lilly nodded.

The sound of a door slamming open woke me from slumber. I noticed that I had been sleeping on Lilly's shoulder. She was still asleep. I decided to investigate what the sound was. I slowly got up and quietly peeked into the hallway. My injured leg was finally moving correctly. I felt relived.

I didn't see anything in the hallway so I shut the door and quietly walked down the hallway. I stopped once I heard voices. I listened in to a conversation in the front room.

"No...showed up again...robots," I heard bits of Lloyd's voice. I couldn't tell what they were talking about, but the mention of robots reminded me of what happened tonight.

"Sebastian...maybe not...warning...outskirts of the city," I heard a higher pitched male voice say. I peeked into the front room.

Garmadon, Lloyd, and Misako stood there, talking to Lloyd's three teammates. The ones in blue and black were assisting the one in red, who was unconscious.

"It didn't paralyze him, which is a good thing," the one in black said, "but it did knock him out."

A girl in a red outfit with short, black hair walked out from behind them.

"The idiot didn't listen to us when we said to go the other way," she said. I saw her look my way and I hid. I snuck back down the hallway and back into the room with Lilly.

What was all that? Did they run into The Liberators? Who was that girl?


	17. Chapter 18

I didn't go back to sleep after that, my mind was still active. I couldn't stop thinking about what they were talking about. Who is Sebastian? What's going on in the outskirts of the city? What happened to Lloyd's teammates?

I heard Lilly wake up once the sun rose.

"Geez, you look like you haven't slept at all. Are you that excited about being taught to do spinjitsu and all that other stuff?" she asked.

"Yeah," I lied, not saying anything about last night. I figured that either Garmadon or Lloyd would tell her about what happened. I can't say much anyway, since I didn't pick up a lot.

"Well, try to stay awake today, alright?" Lilly said, patting my shoulder, then getting up. I watched her stretch then walk out of the room. I followed her.

She walked into one of the front rooms, where two boys, one in blue, and one in black sat on opposite sides of the room. They didn't even look at each other. They must be the two that are fighting.

"Uh, morning guys..." Lilly said. The one in blue turned to look at her.

"Well, what do you know, Lloyd's twin is back!" he said, a smile growing on his face.

"Jay, we're not twins," Lilly said. I looked at her. If she just cut her hair short and had green eyes, she would look like Lloyd. Then again, all the blond people in the city could look alike, since blond hair is a rarity in the city.

"You two sure look like twins," Jay laughed.

"So," Lilly started, "Lloyd couldn't find Kai and Nya?"

The boy in black shook his head. "Nope, Kai got knocked out by one of those laser beams the robots shot. I'm surprised it didn't injure him like it did your friend," he said, his eyes shifting to look at me. I noticed he had two fuzzy caterpillars on his face...or are those eyebrows? I didn't ask.

"They could have different settings on those guns," Lilly said, rubbing her chin, "Did you guys see anyone with the robots?"

Both boys shook their heads. Lilly looked like she was deep in thought for a minute, then she looked over at me.

"Oh, I'm so rude, I forgot to introduce you to these two," Lilly said, "The guy in blue is Jay, master of lightning, and the guy in black is Cole, master of earth."

Cole waved. "This is Karma, she's going to be a master of an element, but no one's sure what it is yet," Lilly said, introducing me. I made a small wave.

"Maybe she'll be master of plants or master of weather?" Jay shrugged.

"Could be," Lilly said, "So lemme guess, Nya is with her brother?"

Both boys replied with a yes at the same time. They both turned and glared at each other for a moment.

"Alright then," Lilly said, walking back down the hall. I followed her.

She opened a door and the girl in red sat there by her unconscious brother. She stood up immediately and smiled.

"Lilly! It's good to see you," she said walking up. Lilly nodded.

"Yeah, nice to see you too, Nya. I wanted to introduce you to Karma," Lilly smiled. I made a tiny wave.

"Karma, huh? I like that name," Nya smiled. No one's really told me that before. I could feel my cheeks turn a little pink.

"In fact, I think I saw you last night," Nya said. I immediately felt embarrassed. I was caught eavesdropping.

"Please forgive me for eavesdropping! I was just curious," I said.

"It's alright. It was nothing serious. It was similar to you two's story anyway," Nya said. I felt a little relived. No one dislikes me for eavesdropping.

"Say, could you keep an eye on Kai for a moment? I need to go give something to Sensei Wu, and Misako told me to keep an eye on him, in case those guns really did any damage," Nya asked. Lilly nodded.

"Uh sure," she said. Nya thanked her and walked out.

"Weird request, but it's simple, right? All we have to do is sit here," Lilly shrugged. I took a seat on a box in the room.

"Yeah, simple," I smiled. She stood there for a minute and looked at him.

"Where in the head did he get shot anyway? Depending on where the laser hit him, it could be fatal," Lilly said, rubbing her chin. She walked over and tilted his head to both sides.

"Huh, there's no bald patch or any red marks," she said. Suddenly, Kai sat up, his face colliding with Lilly's. It was funny, most likely because it looked like they were kissing. Lilly's face grew red and she fell backwards. She scrambled to her feet.

"That wasn't supposed to happen!" she said, looking embarrassed.

Kai smiled. "Denying that you fell for my charm?"

"Oh please, you have as much charm as a horse's ass," Lilly said, crossing her arms.

"You must be attracted to horse butt then," Kai said. Lilly started to say something, but she stormed out, embarrassed. Kai laughed as she walked out.

"You really embarrassed her," I giggled. He looked over at me, surprised I was there.

"It's funny when she's embarrassed. I'm surprised you've done nothing of the sort," he said.

"I don't know her well enough to do that," I said, getting off the box. Just then, Nya walked in.

"Oh, you're awake," she said to her brother. I walked out as they talked. I'm pretty sure Lilly ran to the room we stay in, but I'm just going to give her time to herself. I don't think she wants to be disturbed after being embarrassed like that.


	18. Chapter 19

"I assume your leg is much better?" Sensei Garmadon asked as we walked outside.

"Yes, it is. I still have a red mark on my leg though," I said, twisting my leg to look at the sewn up fabric of my leggings. I remember seeing a red mark on my leg when I woke up this morning.

"Well, it is better than still having the pain," Sensei Garmadon said. I nodded. He stopped once we reached the training area, where we saw Jay stuck on one of the mechanisms and Lloyd trying to get him down. It seemed like it caught Jay's foot.

"Lloyd, could you hurry up? I think it's cutting off circulation to my foot..." Jay said, glancing at his caught foot. Lloyd climbed to the top of the mechanism.

"Okay, don't move Jay," Lloyd said. He raised a katana he was holding and cut a few ropes on top of the mechanism. I watched Jay fall from the top of the mechanism and land with a loud thud.

"You alright?" Lloyd called down to him.

"I think I taste dirt on my tonsils," Jay coughed and got up. He glanced over at me and Sensei Garmadon.

"Showing the newbie around, Sensei?" he asked.

"I actually brought her here to try and teach her spinjitsu, and hopefully get an idea of what her elemental powers are," Garmadon said. Lloyd jumped down from the mechanism.

"Let us get out of your way then, father," Lloyd said, lightly pushing Jay to the stairs. Garmadon stopped them.

"It's fine. Continue training. I don't need this whole area to teach," he said, giving a little chuckle. He walked past them and I followed. Jay and Lloyd continued with their training.

"Now, after you place your foot behind the other, just spin," Sensei Garmadon said, demonstrating. Im about to attempt it for the fifth time. The first four times nothing had happened for me. I watched Garmadon spin and a grayish-gold whirlwind surrounded him. He stopped after a few seconds. I hesitated a moment, then placed a foot behind the other. I spun for a solid 6 seconds, then fell over.

"You're very close. In fact, I did see the colors magenta and purple swirling around your feet," Garmadon said, rubbing his chin, "If you try practicing every day, you may be able to fully master it."

I nodded. "You know what they say, practice makes perfect," I smiled.

"Not perfect, better. There is no possible way for someone to make something perfect, although we describe it that way. Practice makes you better," an old man's voice said from the other side of the training area. I looked to see an old man in a white outfit and tan cone hat. He had the same staff as Sensei Garmadon and a long, white beard.

"Ah, Wu, good afternoon," Garmadon said. Jay and Lloyd stopped sparring for a moment. Wu picked up a tea kettle and started to head inside. He turned before going through the door.

"And good afternoon," he said. He opened the door and went inside. Jay and Lloyd returned to sparring.

"Was that the Sensei Wu guy the others talk about?" I asked. Garmadon nodded.

"My younger brother. He's usually more talkitive when it comes to things like this. He must be feeling under the weather," he said.

"Oh," I said. To be honest, Wu looked much older than Garmadon. Is he sure Wu is his younger brother? Because Garmadon looks like the younger one.

"Usually, we get a hint of one's element by their personality. For example, it's easy to tell Jay is master of lightning because of how energetic he is, and usually lightning is full of energy," Garmadon said.

"Judging by how I've seen you act and what Lilly has told me, you seem more optimistic and kind. Those qualities are similar to the element of light, but there already is a master of light," he continued, rubbing his chin, "I don't know what other element you could possibly have. Though, the color of the orbs that appear in your hands are purple. The color purple is usually associated with the Dark Arts, but I don't think you have any idea what those are."

I shook my head in response. I had no idea what the Dark Arts are, although I remember my distant uncle saying something about them. There was always something off about him though. There were always dark circles under his eyes, and he never cut his hair. He always kept his hair in a ponytail. No guy ever does that anymore. Not to mention, his mustache looked weird to me.

It's been years since I've seen my uncle, so I have no idea what he does now. I now wonder if he was involved with the Dark Arts.

"I think it's better that you don't know what the Dark Arts are for now," Garmadon said. He ended today's session and went inside. I sat there, watching Lloyd and Jay spar. What if I am involved with the Dark Arts and I just don't know it? No, that's not possible, but what if I am?


	19. Chapter 20

Another report on The Liberators blared from the TV in the Ninjas' room. I could hear it as I walked past their room. I stopped and peeked in to hear it. From what I could hear and see, something happened in the city again. I couldn't hear what they did though.

"We really need to stop those guys," I heard Cole say.

"Downside is that we don't know of their whereabouts, so it'd be difficult to stop them unless we're at the scene of the crime," Kai said. I closed the door silently and walked down the hallway. No one knew of their whereabouts. I want to assume they're somewhere in the Badlands, but at the same time I doubt it.

I still haven't mastered spinjitsu, or my elemental powers. Day by day, I'm starting to become less confident about it. What if I really don't have powers and I'm just hallucinating or dreaming? What if everyone is saying my spinjitsu is getting better just to encourage me, to cover up the fact that I'm doing poorly? I can't be certain.

I climbed up to the roof of the Monastery, just to get time to myself. I wanted to be away from the others for a short bit. The others didn't really talk to me anyway. The only people I've talked to are Lilly and Sensei Garmadon. No one else really. I feel as if they're avoiding me, or they know something about me that I don't. The second choice sounds ridiculous to me though. They barely even know me, how would that even be possible?

Maybe it's because I'm younger? I'm sure they all are Lilly's age or older. Usually older people don't really like talking to younger people, and compare it to an adult talking to a baby.

Or maybe they forgot I was there? I mean, I'm short enough not to be noticed around here. Everyone is much taller than me. I just don't know. I'm used to this anyway. I didn't have many friends in school anyway, and I've been pretty isolated since, so it's okay I guess.

People not talking to me isn't my biggest concern though. I'm more concerned about what's going on at home. Is Luo okay? Is my dad okay? Is everyone okay? I yearn to go back home, but I know I can't.

I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my chin on them. What if I just went back home? I'd probably get arrested for assault from what happened, but being in jail would be better than fearing for your safety and the safety of others. I sighed. I just want to go home.

"What are you doing on the roof?" a voice asked. It startled me. I turned to see Lloyd standing on the rooftop.

"I was just watching the clouds," I said, hugging my knees closer to me. I think it'd be weird to say "I'm up here because I was thinking of abandoning this place and going home."

"Ah, mind if I join you?" he asked.

"Go ahead," I said. He sat down next to me. I continued to hug my knees.

"My father says you're getting much better at spinjitsu, you've learned it much faster than I did," Lloyd said as he stared up at the sky.

"Well, my parents always said I was a fast learner," I said, smiling a little bit. There was a bit of a pause.

"Oh, if I haven't said it already, I mean to say sorry for mistaking you for a kid the other day. It's just...your height," Lloyd said.

"It's fine. It happens a lot. I suppose I don't exactly look like a teenage girl anyway," I said. I really looked more like a ten year old than a teenager. My voice was too high and light to be a teenager's, I was as tall as a fourth grader, and I'm not too smart. All the qualities I have that are similar to a kid's.

"You look like a teenager to me," Lloyd said. I noticed something about Lloyd then. I know I've said before that his voice sounds like a woman with a sore throat, but at the same time, he sounds like a kid. You can tell his teammates are older just by the pitches of their voices, but Lloyd still sounds like a kid's. Weird.

"I doubt a seventeen year old would look like this," I laughed. Lloyd gave a look of surprise.

"You're seventeen?" he asked.

"Yeah..problem?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No, I just thought you were closer to my age," Lloyd said. I gave a look of confusion.

"But aren't you twenty or something?" I asked. Lloyd hesitated a moment, then shook his head.

"I'm supposed to be twelve...or thirteen...I don't remember," he said. I nearly fell off the roof. A twelve year old can look that old and that tall!?

"How!?" I asked, surprised. He sat up.

"A few years ago, days before the building that stood where Borg Industries was blew up, I had consumed an aging tea at the same time I used it against a Grundle," he said. I was shocked. So, he's supposed to be twelve or something? It's hard to believe. No wonder his voice sounds so young.

"So, if you feel like the youngest one on the team, you're not alone," Lloyd said.

"Nothing wrong with that, just as long as I don't get treated like a kid," I said. Lloyd laughed.

"Trust me, you won't. It's just weird feeling like the youngest ones on the team sometimes," he said. I nodded in agreement. I know what it's like to be the youngest one.

"You know, I kinda expected you to have some kind of attitude like you're far more superior than everyone else, but I was proven wrong," I said. He laughed again.

"What made you think that?" he said, still laughing.

I shrugged. "The tabloids my mom reads. They really say some bad stuff about you and your friends in there," I said.

"Hence why I don't believe the tabloids," Lloyd said. I nodded.

He yawned then said, "Well, I should probably get going. I promised my mom I would go with her into the city. No idea why she wants to go there though, see ya later." He stood up and walked away, waving. I waved back. He's not as bad as Lilly makes him out to be.


	20. Chapter 21

"Hey, Karma, you wanna help me with something?" Lilly asked as we sat in our room. It was afternoon, I had just finished training. So far, I guess my spinjitsu has getting better, although it's in the same condition as last time: A little bit of color but nothing else.

"Uh, sure," I said. I've been starting to feel unsure about going places with her and such. I mean, she said we can't trust the Ninja, yet we stay here and I find out they're nicer than she makes them out to be. She's so peculiar to me. "What do you need help with?" I asked.

"Well, I'm going to go see an old friend to see if they know anything about The Liberators. Considering he's an elemental master, I wanted to see if you could keep an eye out to see if he does anything peculiar. I don't suspect that he's a part of them, but you never know," Lilly said.

"Okay," I said. This wouldn't be too hard.

I watched Lilly summon a dragon, a bluish-cerulean one. It was beautiful. Would I be able to do this, too!? If so, I want to learn how now!

"I suppose Sensei Garmadon hasn't told you about elemental dragons," Lilly said, noticing my awed expression. I nodded.

"He'll probably tell you about it once you unlock your elemental powers," Lilly said, mounting her dragon. I got on as well. It took a bit for us to leave, since Lilly forgot how to steer a dragon for a moment. How do you forget that?

We landed in the outskirts of the city, the dragon disappearing, unnoticed by passerby.

"We don't want to look suspicious, so this is as far as my dragon can go," Lilly said, pulling her hood onto her head. She thinks a dragon with make us look suspicious when we're wearing outfits that look similar to a ninja's. Then again, people would probably think we're cosplayers or something. We'd still look out of place, though.

I followed Lilly to a little shop. The sign said "Psychic Cupido". Why would an elemental master run a fortune telling place? And why the name Cupido? Sounds more like a matchmaker's name to me. I followed Lilly inside.

A man who looked to be in his early twenties sat at a desk. He jumped out of the seat once we walked in. I noticed he had shaggy, crimson hair. His eyes were a bright and happy orange. He wore what looked like a white private school uniform, with the jacket unbuttoned, revealing a salmon-colored shirt underneath with what looked like red shapes peeking from under his jacket.

"Lillian! It's great to see you again! And you brought a friend!" the man's voice nearly sounded the same as Jay's, but much more pleasant.

"Eh, great to see you too, Xavier," Lilly said, sounding a bit uncomfortable, "Listen, I-"

"You're not going to introduce your friend?" Xavier asked. Lilly heaved and annoyed sigh.

"This is Karma. She's a master of some element we haven't found yet," she said. Xavier shook my hand.

"Ah, I am Xavier Philomides, master of time," he said, smiling.

"You seem more like a master of fortune telling, judging by your business," I said. Xavier looked around, then laughed.

"It's how I use my powers. I can see future relationships, future events, children of the future, and more. I can change both the past and the future, but I prefer not to," Xavier said.

"Why?" I asked, "You could prevent tragedies." Is this guy out of his mind!?

"Everything happens for a reason, Karma. Changing those events could lead to something even worse. I don't want to spend my life stuck in time travel, continuously changing events, only get more thrown at my face. Tragedy is a part of life...but I did change one thing though, for a customer that arrived here earlier. It cost her a lot, but I did it," he said.

"So you prefer not to do it, but you do?" I asked. This is getting confusing.

"If it's something desperate. I changed the girl's fate of dying of in a car crash two weeks from now," Xavier said, looking away, "I feel like an ass if I say I can't do it for the sake of keeping order in time."

I felt a little sorry for him then. He probably has a lot of stress from denying most customers of changing events in time. People do tend to harass others who don't follow their specific wishes.

"So, you said you can see future relationships and children, too," I said, changing topic. He smiled then.

"Yes, I can find great matches for people. In fact, a different girl came in here earlier and she found out that Cole from that ninja team, and a few other guys, would be an ideal match. She had this brown hair that I really liked," Xavier said, picking up a deck of cards, "These cards have the faces of different people painted on them."

He handed me a card with my face on it. It had a cartoonish style. Brown dots for my eyes, no mouth or eyebrows. It included my brown hair in a bun, and pink, rosy cheeks. I noticed what looked like a bead at the top of the card.

"The bead changes color, indicating a good or bad match. These help me see the future much easier. Eh...would it be creepy if I said I had a card for everyone in Ninjago?" Xavier said, scratching his head.

"Not creepy at all," Lilly said, sarcastically. Xavier slid over by Lilly, showing her two cards. Her cheeks immediately turned red.

"Cut the sarcasm, friend. It was a rhetorical question," Xavier smiled. He put the two cards in his pocket with the others. He slid back to his desk.

"Now, what were you going to ask earlier, Lilly?" he asked, taking my card and adding it to the others.

"I was going to ask if you knew anything about The Liberators. The crime group that's been stirring up things in the city," Lilly said, crossing her arms. Xavier sat down in his chair and reclined back, thinking possibly.

"I thought I heard my assistant talking about them the other day," he said, sitting up slowly.

"Assistant?" Lilly said, a little surprised.

"Yeah, he's been helping me out around here. He's pleasant to have around," Xavier smiled. He turned and said loudly, "Hey, Alex! Could you come out here for a minute?"

A boy who looked about nineteen walked into the room. He had his fiery orange hair tied back into a tiny ponytail. His navy blue eyes seemed a bit cold though. His skin was pale and he wore a white shirt and black pants. Not to be rude but, he looked like a woman in a way.

"What do you need, Xavier?" he asked. His voice was a bit deeper than I expected. I expected him to sound like Jay, too, but instead he sounds like the lead singer of the band Ashikubi.

"I just wanted you to meet my guests, Karma and Lilly," Xavier gestured towards us. Alex made a small wave, no emotion shown on his face. It looked like Lilly was studying his arm. Then, I noticed it. Black grease was smudged on his sleeve and hand. It almost looked like he was hiding it.

"Say, what's with the grease on your hand? I don't remember Xavier owning an auto body shop," Lilly said with a look of suspicion. Alex looked a little panicked then.

"It's nothing, just paint," he said, trying to sound calm. Lilly raised an eyebrow.

"Paint doesn't smudge like that. In fact, your supposed 'paint' looks like the same stuff The Liberators' robots have inside their bodies," she said, her hand resting on her katana's handle. Then, Alex grabbed a pot from a shelf and threw it at us. Both Lilly and I dodged it. Lilly sped at him, unsheathing her katana. Suddenly, Alex did something I've never seen anyone do before.

He disappeared into thin air, as if he were grains of sand blowing away.


	21. Chapter 22

"How did he do that!?" I said, shocked by what I just saw. It's as if he was never there in the first place.

"He must be a master of Psionics. Psionics have to do with teleporting, telekinesis, all that. From what I know, the teleportation doesn't take you very far," Lilly explained, "Come on, we have no time to lose."

We ran out of Xavier's shop and noticed Alex running down the sidewalk, trying to hide behind pedestrians as he ran. Lilly and I followed him, being careful not to run into anyone. I saw Alex look behind himself to see us, and he looked a little panicked. Then, I saw his eyes focus on something. I couldn't see what it was, but he looked relived. I saw him run from the sidewalk and into a car. I saw him get in and it drove off. He stuck his head out the window, flashing a triumphant smile.

"How do we catch him now!?" Lilly said. My eyes shifted to the vehicles parked by the sidewalk. I noticed a key was still in a motorbike parked by the sidewalk. Someone thank the stupid person who did that. Although borrowing something without permission isn't my thing, I have no choice but to do this, besides, I used to drive these things all the time when the noodle shop had delivery.

I jogged over to the motorbike and got on it.

"Um, Karma?" Lilly gave me a look like I was about to do something dumb.

"If you wanna catch this guy, I suggest you go along with this," I said, putting on the goggles that were hanging on the motorbike's handle. Lilly heaved what sounded like an annoyed sigh and got on the back.

"Just remember to return this," she mumbled.

"Oh don't worry, I will," I promised, "Now let's go!"

I started the bike and sped off, following the path of the car I saw Alex get away in. I dodged cars and swerved around trucks. I tried to careful, since I wasn't wearing a helmet. Really, I'd rather wear a helmet on these things, that way I know my skull isn't going to get cracked open.

"You know, I could have summoned my dragon," Lilly asserted.

"Hey, you said you didn't want to seem out of the ordinary here, so I chose this," I said, keeping my eyes on the road.

"I know, but..." she trailed off.

"Listen, I got this, alright? Just because I'm new at this doesn't mean I need people to do it for me," I said. I had a slight feeling that wasn't the reason she talked about that, but I couldn't deal with that at the moment. The car was in my sights. I sped up, catching up with the vehicle.

"Lilly, could you hand me one of your knives?" I asked.

"Um, why?" she asked, sounding unsure, as if she was questioning her trust.

"I think I know a way to catch him," I claimed, although my plan wasn't fully formed. She handed me a small knife and I hid it in my armwarmer. I sped up so that I was right next to the passenger side of the vehicle. I saw Alex sitting there, and it looked like her was chatting with the driver, a tan man with slightly long, jet black hair. I saw Alex's head turn to look out the window, and he gave a panicked look yet again when he saw us. Since his window was down, I decided to say something witty, like the heroes in movies do right before they catch a villain.

"S'up carrothead!" I yelled. He looked a little offended, but I didn't care. I slid the knife out of my armwarmer and threw it. It pierced one of the front tires.

"If I knew you were going to do that I would have given you a different knife!" Lilly yelled, sounding a bit angry with me. I wasn't paying attention. I watched the car swerve, then slam into a median. I pulled the motorbike up next to it. I saw the driver and Alex get out. I noticed now that the driver had turquoise eyes, was pretty muscular, and was taller than Lilly. I saw Alex look over at us.

"What the hell!?" he yelled, angrily.

"End of the line," Lilly said, unsheathing her katana, "Don't make it so obvious that you're an enemy next time, and maybe you won't have this issue."

Alex glared at her. Suddenly, a man and a woman, out of nowhere, jumped in front of them. They both had mahogany-colored hair and icy blue eyes. They looked like twins almost, with the man being taller.

"End of the line, you say?" the man said. He had a sophisticated-sounding voice, the kind you would hear out of a rich man combined with a villain who is royalty. I saw Lilly step back.

"End of line for whom? Are you speaking about yourself?" the woman sounded the same as the man's, only it was more feminine. I saw Lilly glare at her. The woman laughed.

"Your eyes may stare daggers, but it is doing us no harm," she said softly, then she turned to Alex and the driver. "Seok! Alex! Let's go, these two are wasting our time," she said, now more impatiently. I saw Lilly run at her, katana at the ready to slice. Then, I saw the man pull out a gun. I knew what he was going to do. I ran straight at him and tackled him. It didn't stop him from shooting it, but I turned his aim away from her head. Unfortunately, it hit her arm instead. She tripped over and held her arm. The man kicked me off of him.

"Off of me you dwarf!" he said harshly. Oh now he's gonna get it. I'm no dwarf. I slowly stood up, and the lights went out around us. Although it was only early twilight, it still was very dark. Even the lights in the skyscrapers went out. Must've been a power outage, but I didn't care. I focused right on the man and the woman.

"Now what do you think you're doing?" the woman said, putting her arms on her hips. I stayed silent. Then, with the flick of my wrist, a circular purple line formed and hit the man, sending him into a nearby car. I saw the woman give a panicked look.

"Sebastian! Are you alright?" she asked, worried.

"Don't worry about me! Get her!" he yelled. I noticed Alex and Seok were gone. They must have disappeared. I turned my attention to the woman revealing a knife. She jumped at me, but with a swipe of my hand, I hit her with a purple projectile. I was starting to get the hang of this. Are these my elemental powers? If so, these are cool! I released an onslaught of whatever I could bring up. Then, I saw Sebastian and the woman disappear.

I stepped back and rested, then I remembered Lilly. I ran over to her.

"Are you alright?" I asked. She nodded. I felt relived.

"Did you see my powers though!? I could control them!" I said happily. She looked at me.

"The lights going out were your powers. You...you were using the Dark Arts on those people," she said. Suddenly, I felt guilty. The look she was giving me made me feel like I did something bad. I noticed the lights come back on around us.

"I-Is that bad?" I asked. She didn't say anything, she just got up and summoned her dragon.

"We need to talk to Garmadon," she said.


	22. Chapter 23

Garmadon rubbed his chin as Lilly told him everything that happened. I was starting to feel guilty and even a little mad at myself. Why did I have to do that!? I could have fended those guys off another way! I had a feeling that I was in trouble now.

"Hmm, it does sound like you indeed do have the powers of Darkness, but you using Dark Arts has confirmed a theory I made. How you used Dark Arts without knowing what it is has me baffled," Garmadon said. I became confused.

"Theory?" I asked. What kind of theory would this be?

"When I mentioned Dark Arts in one of our discussions, you gave a look like you recognized the term," Garmadon said. I nodded.

"That's because my uncle used to talk about it. I don't really see him anymore, and he was always pretty odd..." I explained.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is your uncle's name Clouse, perhaps?" Garmadon asked. I froze a little bit. That is my uncle's name, but how does he know it!?

"Yes...that's his name," I confirmed. Garmadon sighed.

"No wonder you and your mother look familiar to me," he said. I saw Lilly give a look of confusion.

"You know her uncle?" she asked. He nodded.

"I used to fight alongside him, and he helped me do a few deeds I wish to forget. Clouse had a sister who was master of darkness. It seems Lin passed her power along to you," Garmadon said. My mother is master of darkness? She passed it along to me? Is this why she's so reclusive and tired all the time? I froze. Everything seemed so confusing for me now. Garmadon knows my uncle and my mom. Does my dad know my mom is an elemental master? Does Luo have powers too? I really wanted to go home now. I wished I was home.


	23. Chapter 24

Afterwords, I went up to the Monastery roof to contemplate everything I had just heard. My element is darkness. I, unknowingly, used the Dark Arts. Garmadon knows Uncle Clouse. My mother is an elemental master. Why didn't I know that she was an elemental master!? Why didn't she tell me!? Frustrated thoughts overflowed in my mind. Did she think Luo would have gotten the powers instead? Or was she just keeping it a secret? Are these powers why she's so reserved all the time? I yearned to go home, so I could talk to my mother about this. Maybe she'd clear some things up. Maybe I wouldn't be so frustrated and confused.

Really, I was confused about everything. Mom's powers, why Lilly keeps telling me who to trust, how my powers work, everything. My mind feels overloaded.

"Watching the clouds again?" a voice asked suddenly. I looked to my left to see Lloyd sitting on the roof as well. I jumped a bit. How did he get up here so silently? Am I going deaf? I then remembered that he's s ninja. That's what they're supposed to do.

I decided to be honest. "No. I'm just...really confused on a lot of things," I admitted.

"What are you confused on? Maybe I can help," Lloyd said. I thought for a minute. Should I really tell him my issues? I don't really know him that well, except for the fact that he's supposed to be a kid. I thought about it for a minute, then I came to a conclusion. I suppose telling someone that you're supposed to be a kid is a huge secret, so why am I hesitating on getting his help? I decided to tell him.

"Well, first off, I'm confused on my powers. Like, can I actually damage something with them? Or can I only turn the lights off?" I asked. He was silent for a minute, then spoke up.

"You can draw energy from darkness, like how Kai can draw energy from fire...well sometimes...he actually burns himself in the process sometimes, but still. You may be able to blind people in a way with the darkness, helping anyone on your team," Lloyd explained, "Now, for Dark Arts, I have no idea."

Well that's cool, I can blind people. If only I knew how to do that. Drawing energy from darkness? Is that what I did today? Is that why the lights went out?

"Okay, second, any idea why my mother wouldn't tell me about these powers if she's an elemental master?" I asked.

"Possibly because she didn't tell your father and didn't want him to find out. Cole had the same experience with his parents somewhat. His mother didn't tell his father about her powers," Lloyd said. But why would someone keep something like that a secret? If my husband suddenly said one day he has elemental powers, I'd be like "Alright, coolio, show them off!" I suppose some people like to keep it a secret.

"Last one, Lilly's been telling me not to trust any of you guys, but I can see now what she said is a pile of crap. What I don't get is, she said she's trained with you guys before, so I though you all would be friends. It seems like she's distant from you guys to me," I said. Lloyd gave a look as if he was looking at a difficult math problem. He was quiet for a while.

"It might be because she was never really included on anything we did, but Sensei Wu said she wasn't ready at the time. She might have some kind of jealousy because she was left behind a lot," he said, "Not being included was probably the reason why she went off on her own anyway."

I suddenly felt a little bad for her. Is that why it was only her and I going to Xavier's shop today? I guess I could understand why she went off on her own. I wouldn't leave while I was in the middle of training to be an elemental master though.

"I should probably go talk to her about it," I said, "because really, it's not cool to be telling me not to trust people like you guys." I got up, stretching slightly. Lloyd stood up as well.

"I'm going to come along," he said.

Lloyd stayed out in the hallway, listening in as I started up a conversation with Lilly. I didn't want to ask the question right off the bat, and Lloyd wanted to see if she would lie about anything. I tried to keep the conversation going, despite not knowing what to talk to her about. I just talked about random things.

After a short bit of silence, I asked the question. "Hey, um, why did you say I can't trust the ninja? I mean, Cole's pretty chill, and Lloyd's very nice. I don't understand why you said I can't trust them," I said. Lilly didn't turn from the drawer she was organizing.

"It's just a façade. They're acting nice so you won't run the other way," she said. The door to our room opened suddenly and Lloyd walked in with an angered expression. I knew he would walk in at some point but not this early.

"If we really were that way, why would you come back!?" he asked, glaring at her. She was silent.

"I didn't specifically come back with Karma for you and your team, Lloyd. Let me remind you that I'm a student of Garmadon and Wu," she spoke finally.

"But why did you lie to Karma about us!? Why'd you tell her all these bad things about us!? Why did you even fight Kai while you were out on the streets!? More importantly, why can't you just tell the truth!?" I could hear the anger in Lloyd's voice. He must feel disrespected because of the way Lilly described him. Lilly didn't speak for a while. I saw her grip the sides of the drawer on her dresser.

"I...I have to confess...I was just jealous of you guys' real powers" her voice was shaky, as if she was trying to refrain from crying. What does she mean 'real powers'?

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked, confused. Lilly turned around suddenly, tears flowing down her face.

"My powers are fake, okay!?"


	24. Chapter 25

"What!? What do you mean!? How!?" Lloyd asked, looking more confused than a foreign person in a new country.

"It's...It's a long story. Basically, messing with Elemental Forges and a bit of science can give you the powers you desire," she explained, tears still running down her face. She showed us her palm on her right hand, revealing a long, jagged scar going vertically. "Injecting the powers inside myself gave me a nasty scar, but at the time, I convinced myself it'd be worth it," Lilly closed the drawer and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"But why'd you do it?" I asked.

She sighed. "I saw so many news reports on how Lloyd and his team saved the city, so I yearned to be like them. I didn't want to be the useless homeless kid, I wanted to be a hero. So, I got my hands on some scientific materials and found the Elemental Forge for ice. I went through hell to get it, but it was worth it.

"After I injected the powers into myself, I went to the newly (at the time) built monastery. I was taken in by Wu and Garmadon. I was a new student, and I trained alongside the ninja for a bit. I felt I could finally be a hero now. Despite having a sort of rivalry with Kai, I felt I could get along with everyone on the team.

"Then, one day, the issues with the Overlord and the nindroids arose. I waited patiently to be included on Lloyd and his teams' missions, but the day never came. Sensei Wu said I wasn't ready. He never said how long it would be until I was ready, so I became frustrated and left. I felt like I wasn't really part of the team, that I was just there to make everyone look better or something. When, I found you, Karma, I felt I could become a better teacher than Sensei Wu and his brother, but now I don't think I'm wise enough for that."

I felt sympathy for her. All she wanted was to be included.

"Lilly, you were always part of the team," Lloyd said, much calmer now, "I suppose my uncle was just saying the same thing he's said to Nya many times."

"I didn't feel like part of the team, but I didn't know the same thing was said to Nya, either," Lilly said, looking a bit shocked.

"Hence why she's Samurai X," Lloyd said. My heart sped up. Samurai!? Nya's a samurai!? The thing I want to be!? She even has a cool alias to go with it! She seemed so much cooler to me now.

"Yeah, true," Lilly said.

Lloyd gave a little smile. "So, why don't you prove my uncle wrong like Nya did? And even if you're still going to be bitter and jealous, the guys and I will still treat you as part of the team. You too, Karma," he said. He said a goodbye and walked out of the room.

Lilly sighed and collapsed onto her bed. She stared up at the ceiling.

"I didn't expect you to get so emotional," I said. She looked over at me, her blue eyes still showing hits of sadness.

"It was a secret I couldn't hold inside any longer. I felt, and still am feeling, quite guilty over how salty I've been about the guys," she said.

"Hey, you learn from mistakes. Make this a learning experience," I said, smiling. I saw her smile back.

"Yeah, a learning experience."

That night, I had a dream about my mother. She shouting for me out in the streets. Shouting my name, calling for me. I just stayed in the shadows, observing her. Why am I not running to her? I want to see her again badly, but now I can't run to her. Why is this dream stopping me? I felt a pain in my heart as my mother walked away, upset.

My eyes opened, my cheeks wet with tears.

I guess I'm missing my family so much now, I'm having dreams about them.


	25. Chapter 26

I didn't sleep for the rest of the night. I wanted to run home now, just so I could tell my mother I'm alright. That would be a risky choice though, because I don't know what will happen when I get there. There's a 60% chance the police will be called, a 40% that everything will be alright. Knowing my father, there's a bigger chance the police will be called. I don't want to risk it. I don't want to be arrested. I just stayed put, and stared at the ceiling.

I knew it was early morning when I heard Lilly rise from her bed. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I felt drained. Of course, now I would be tired. Typical. It's like my body wants to be tired at the most inconvenient of times.

"I didn't expect you to be up this early," I heard Lilly say, "Then again, that's a good thing."

I groaned. "How is waking up earlier than the rest of the country a good thing?" Okay...maybe I exaggerated.

"Well, Sensei Wu wakes up all his students at three or four am. We're lucky we aren't woken up that early," Lilly explained, yawning in the middle of her sentance.

"The only reason I'm awake this early is because I couldn't sleep," I complained. Lilly walked over to my bed. She was already dressed, her hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she was eating an apple. How the hell is she dressed already and where'd she get that apple!?

"Do you sleep in your clothes or something!?" I asked. She shook her head.

"During the time we were talking, I got dressed and took this apple from my drawer," she said, "I recommend you get dressed. We have training today."

I groaned again. Just dandy. Exactly what I wanted.

I tugged lightly at my gi as we walked to the training area. The wrinkles in my clothing always bother me more than anything else. Why does it bother me so much? It just does. I don't know how to explain it. I just want all my clothing to be wrinkle free.

Lilly stopped suddenly, causing me to run into her. She walked over to what appeared to be an arguing Jay and Cole. I heard her give an annoyed sigh, then she knocked their heads together. They both fell backward, holding their foreheads.

"What was that for!?" Jay asked.

"Maybe if you two could just get along for once like you used to I wouldn't have to do that," she replied, giving an annoyed look.

"I won't get along with this loser as long as he's still trying to steal Nya!" Jay said, crossing his arms.

"Don't be ignorant you two," Lilly said, annoyed, "Sit down and talk with her about this. This drama with your stupid love triangle needs to stop."

With that, she turned and walked away. I followed her, choosing not to listen in on what the two boys were saying. They're probably arguing again or something.

"Let us see if you have improved with your spinjitsu," Sensei Wu said while he sipped his tea. I tried to remember what I learned. Foot behind the other, turn it into a spin, try to balance. If I wanted to, I could make it similar to a pirouette if I wanted to. I placed one foot behind the other, then turned and spun. I held the spin longer than I did last time. I must have improved in balance.

I stopped. The old man showed no signs of surprise or disappointment. Sensei Wu set his tea cup aside.

"It seems my brother has taught you well. I believe you mastered Spinjitsu," he said. I felt happy then. I've mastered something other than mopping!? I felt accomplishment and triumph.

"Maybe now you can learn how to summon your dragon," Lilly said, smiling a little bit.

"Maybe, but for today, I want to see how much you've taught her, Lillian," Sensei Wu said. Lilly groaned.

"Could you please not call me by my full name, Sensei?" she said, looking a little embarrassed.

"Ah, just like Lloyd. Not wanting me to call them by their full names," Sensei Wu said, chuckling a little bit, "Now, let me see how much you've taught her."

I saw the Ninja walk outside into the training area.

"You're gonna have her spar?" Lilly asked. The old man nodded. Spar? What's that?

"Um, what's a spar?" I asked.

"It's basically fighting without landing very heavy blows. All for practice," Cole explained.

"You'll be going against Cole and Kai. I trust they will go easy on you, since you're a new student," Sensei Wu said, sipping his tea with one eye on Cole and Kai. Both boys nodded. I felt like my height was going to be a disadvantage. Both Cole and Kai were much taller than me.

"Don't worry about your height, Karma. Just try your best, and use what I taught you," Lilly whispered to me. It was almost as if she read my mind. I nodded in understanding.

I faced off against Kai first. To be honest, I felt a little nervous. Facing off against people taller than me isn't exactly my thing, then again, rarely anyone is my height, unless they're a kid. I used all the blocks that Lilly had taught me, but blocks aren't going to be the only thing that can help me in this.

It wasn't hard to lay light to medium blows. In fact, I was blocking most of the time. At one point, I finally tripped Kai. Is that the advantage of being small? Being able to trip people? If so, I'd play the "school bully" part really well.

"Impressive, but blocks won't always help you in fights," Sensei Wu said, pouring himself some tea. I felt a pang of disappointment in myself. I should have dealt more blows.

I faced off against Cole next. To be honest, I was scared to face off against him. Then again, everyone would be scared to face off against a tall, muscular guy with eyebrows that strike fear into people. Seriously, those eyebrows could reach out and slap people. I tried to not let fear hold me back, but I couldn't help it.

I gave up halfway into the fight. I felt disappointed in myself again.

"What is the matter?" Sensei Wu asked.

I felt embarrassed to admit it, but I did. "I'm just...scared of people who look kinda like Cole."

I heard Jay snicker. "Hey Cole, did you hear that? She thinks you're scary looking," he teased.

"Shut up, Jay," Cole growled.

Sensei Wu took a sip of tea and then looked at me.

"Fear is something you have to conquer in order to summon your elemental dragon. I believe you are just nervous though. It happens to every new student," Sensei Wu said, "Today's lesson is over. Get some rest and practice, Karma."

Lilly walked over to me. "Don't feel disappointed. You at least tried, and that's the best thing," she said.

Cole walked over and said "Yeah, trying is the best thing. And don't feel down about not being able to take me down like you did Kai. I think defeating Kai in the sparring match was a great enough victory for you today." Cole smiled and walked away with his fellow ninja. Lloyd gave a tiny thumbs up to me as he walked inside.

I felt a bit of encouragement. Maybe I shouldn't be so disappointed.


	26. Chapter 27

I practiced for days after not being able to fight Cole. I'd practice until midnight sometimes. It all would pay off though, I hoped. It's just like studying. Sometimes studying until midnight pays off. It did for me at least.

My arms and legs would be sore from all the vigorous practicing, but it would be worth it, right? I hoped so. I'd probably be stronger than any of the movie samurai after this. I'd be a professional at combat. No one would underestimate me anymore. I wouldn't be a helpless rabbit, I would be a fierce lion, able to tear my enemies apart.

I was starting to tire from today's practice. I felt as if I had been drained of nearly all my energy. Maybe because I neglected to stop and eat something today? I don't know.

I heard the door to the training area open, and a voice say "You're still out here?"

I turned around to see Nya standing there with an orange. I didn't realize it was dinner time, but I wanted to carry on with my practice. "Yeah, I like to practice at later times sometimes," I said, punching a dummy more slowly than I intended.

"I think you need a break. You look really tired," Nya said, walking up.

I shook my head. "I'm fine. I'm not tired," I said. To be honest, I was feeling a little worn out, but I didn't want to stop.

"Yes, you are. You don't just randomly gain dark circles under your eyes, Karma. Besides, I think you're working yourself too hard," Nya advised. I stopped punching the dummy. I'm not working myself too hard! Sometimes you have work yourself hard, especially in school. So, shouldn't it be the same here!? I don't think she understands.

"I'm not working myself too hard!" I argued, "Sometimes it has to be this way."

Nya gave a confused look, then shook her head. "No, it doesn't. Listen, I know you want stronger than anyone here, but overworking yourself won't help you. And neither will practicing the same three things over and over," she said. I thought it over. I mean, I guess she's right? But practicing the same three things helps too, right? I'm not too sure.

"If you'd like, I can teach you more moves and such," Nya offered, "but I'd like it if you'd eat dinner first."

She was starting to sound like a mom now, but I accepted and went inside to eat.

After having a bowl of noodles, I went back outside to see Nya sitting cross-legged on the stairsteps, almost like the senseis do. She wasn't meditating like they do, though.

"Okay, are you ready?" she asked, getting up. I nodded. I surprised to see she didn't go over the same stuff Lilly taught me, with blocking and whatnot. She went right in to new things. I actually liked this. It wasn't like school where you're retaught things you clearly remember from last year, although those are a good thing sometimes.

Nya would review the moves with me the next day, to see if I remembered them and if I still know how to do them. No offense to Lilly, but Nya us a much better teacher than her. I guess it's just because Lilly makes everything way too simplified. You have to get complex with things sometimes.

When the time came again to spar, I went against Jay and Kai. I could take down both boys with ease, although I messed up quite a few times. Nya had helped me improve. Practicing day and night isn't the thing that helps you the most. It's like how studying doesn't always help you. Well, it does, but not always. You get my point, right?

I no longer feel small. In fact, I feel as though I'm taller than everyone.


	27. Chapter 28

"How are you already beating me at this!? I just taught you how to play this game five minutes ago!" Lloyd said in disbelief as we played one of his favorite video games. Today's my day off. I'm using this day to chillax, and maybe get to know everyone better, hopefully. Unfortunately, I've used up most of that time to play video games with Lloyd. It's already three in the afternoon. I guess I can get to know everyone anytime, right?

"I actually don't know," I said honestly as I steered my avatar towards the treasure chest. Opening it would make me win the game.

"Isn't it odd for ninjas to be playing games about pirates? I mean, the whole 'ninja vs pirates' thing exists," I asked. Lloyd shrugged.

"I really don't mind. We may have dealt with pirates before, but it doesn't bother me," he said. I said a simple "Oh," and reached the treasure chest. I was the winner of the game. I felt a pang of joy. I won my first level in my first video game. I smiled a little bit. This is a small achievement in my life. It may sound like a stupid achievement, but I rank it as a cool one.

I started to hear a bit of arguing from the kitchen as the next level started. Lloyd must have heard it too, because he paused the level and said, "Must be Cole and Jay again."

I took a moment to a listen. I thought I heard a voice slightly lighter than Lloyd's, but slightly androgynous.

"Should we go check it out, just in case it's not them?" I asked. Lloyd nodded. Both of us got up and walked to the kitchen, the arguing becoming much more clearer. Lloyd and I peeked into the kitchen to see Kai and Lilly arguing over something the other did. I sighed. I'll get along with everyone she said, even Kai she said.

"Oh don't even get me started on how arrogant you are!" I heard Lilly yell angrily. Kai scoffed.

"But I'm not as much of a bitch as you can be," he shouted. It was silent then. Lilly looked offended and ticked. Kai had a look like he's starting to regret what he said. I noticed what looked like the food for dinner on the counter. Oh no, I know what this going to evolve into.

"What did you..." Lilly's voice rose. I saw her pick up a bowl of ramen and throw it at him, "JUST CALL ME!?"

The ramen hit him in the face. The bowl fell off, revealing noodles scattered in his hair, some of the sliced pork sitting on his shoulder, and the meat broth soaking his clothes. They both looked equally angry now.

I saw Kai pick up a bowl of miso soup and throw it at her. The broth soaking Lilly. It quickly evolved into a full-on food fight. I had a would happen, seeing that food was just sitting there.

"Do you think we should break it up?" a voice above me whispered. I looked up to see Jay standing over me, peeking in. Cole was standing over by Lloyd. Lloyd shook his head. "I don't feel like getting hit with food."

Cole gave an upset look. "All that delicious food going to waste," he whispered with sadness. Suddenly, I saw Sensei Wu push past us.

"Enough!" he shouted over their voices. Kai and Lilly froze.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Sensei Wu said, putting his hands on his hips. Lilly pointed at Kai.

"He's the one who started it!" she said immediately.

"I started it!? I believe you're the one who started throwing the foo-" Kai was interrupted by Sensei Wu saying "Enough!" again.

"You both will be cleaning this kitchen while the rest of us go to dinner. Hopefully, by then, you two will get along," Sensei Wu said.

"But Sensei-" Kai was interrupted again by Wu saying "No buts. You know where the sponges, mops, and buckets are kept."

Both Kai and Lilly sighed and walked out of the room to go get the supplies.

"So, Sensei, can we go to Chen's Noodlehouse then!?" Cole asked, excitement in his voice. The old man nodded and Cole smiled. I didn't want to go there. I'd be helping the competition. I went anyway though, just to do a bit of spying for my family's business.

The first thing I noticed when we got there? The huge automatic man over the sign holding a huge bowl of multicolored noodles. Is that how this business got famous? A huge automatic man!?

The music inside was annoying. Just, never mix oriental music and kazoos, or that's at least what it sounded like. It was colorful inside, though. I liked the color of orange they used for the walls.

We all sat at a booth. Nya, who tagged along at the last minute, explained what the rolly-tray thing by our table was. It was like a conveyor belt, but it brings your food along. Were they too lazy to hire waiters or what?

I got orange chicken instead of noodles. I've felt a little sick of noodles ever since the day I ran away. I've eaten some once after I ran away, but I threw up afterwords.

In the middle of our dinner, I heard a beeping sound. I looked around, thinking it was a fire alarm, but I didn't see anything on fire. The people at the table next to us, a boy with light brown hair and a boy with dark brown hair looked over at us. People at other tables did as well.

"Uh, Nya?" Jay spoke up, "Your bracelet is beeping,"

Nya looked at her bracelet. I saw the red jewel flash repeatedly.

"Oh, what's going on now?" she said, concerned. The others at our table looked over at her.

"Something's going on in the city," she said.


	28. Chapter 29

"What's going on in the city?" I asked immediately, feeling a bit of panic. Always, something has to ruin the good times, right? It happens all the time in movies. The protagonist actually gets to have a good time, then the antagonist decides to screw everything up, ruining the good time for the protagonist.

"I'm not sure, this bracelet doesn't exactly tell me what the issue is," Nya sighed. We all left the table, going outside. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It's probably in another part of the city.

"All my stuff's at the monastery though! If it's a major issue, how am I supposed to fight!?" Jay said.

"Can't you just use your fists?" I asked. Are they totally dependent on weapons?

"Not if the enemy has a sword! I don't want to end up loosing a hand like Luke Skywalker!" Jay said, a hint of panic in his voice. _Did he forget how to use his elemental powers?_ I thought to myself.

"Let's just use our dragons and look for the problem. It can probably be seen from the sky," Cole suggested. Sensei Garmadon nodded in agreement. The three boys stepped forward and summoned their dragons. Jay's was an electric blue color, Cole's was the color of dirt, and Lloyd's was an emerald color. A part of me wished now that I knew how to summon a dragon. It'd be badass! I can see myself pulling up by my peers from school on my dragon, saying something like "S'up nerds! Check out my sweet ride!" Yeah, I'd be really cool then!

I watched Cole mount his dragon and Nya get on the back. I got on the back of Jay's dragon. I was afraid it would electrocute me at first, but surprisingly it didn't. You'd think the elemental dragons would hold the same qualities as it's element. Fire most likely being very hot, lightning electrocuting you, ice being very cold, and so on. They're almost like how you'd imagine regular fairytale dragons, except Kai's dragon is the only one who'd be able to breathe fire.

Once we were in the air, I could see black smoke coming from the east side of the city.

"Would that smoke be the issue? It looks more like something the firefighters would have to deal with," Jay observed.

"Smoke doesn't always mean fire, Jay," Nya said, her look of concern lingering.

"Well, it means there's a huge chance of it being a fire, but let's check it out anyway," Cole said, his dragon speeding forward. Jay and Lloyd's followed.

The dragons landed near the source of the smoke and disappeared. We ran up the block to see a burning building, the source of the smoke. Accompanied by it was a boy in a hoodie, waving his hand frantically to put out a small flame that had caught his hand. His chin-length orange hair seemed familiar.

"Hey kid! What do you think you're doing!?" Cole yelled, catching the boy's attention. He froze and he turned his head to look at us. His navy blue eyes are what made me remember him. He's Xavier's assistant, Alex, the master of Psion. No offense to Alex, but he looks like a woman when his hair isn't tied back. Scratch that, he always looks like a woman.

I saw Alex turn and run away. He was stopped when Jay electrocuted him, and by electrocuted I mean Jay pretty much tased him, like how police officers taser criminals who get out of hand. Jay walked over to him. I followed.

"Explain why you're burning this building. I mean, it does look old, but why are you burning it? What are you getting out of burning this building?" I asked Alex, who seemed to be giving everyone a death stare.

"Why should I tell you?" Alex spat. The others gathered around.

"I doubt you will get more time in prison if you tell why you did it and tell the police what you did," Garmadon said. Alex looked at him.

"Go back to the retirement home, Gramps. You-" Alex was cut off by Garmadon jabbing his staff into the boy's hand. Alex let out a cry similar to a dog yelping.

"I can see you weren't taught manners either," Garmadon observed, releasing Alex's hand. Alex cradled it, as if he broke it. Cole was about to say something when we all were thrown backward, leaving Alex lying there. My elbow accidentally collided with Cole's nose, causing it to bleed. I apologized then looked to see why we were thrown back.

A man with hair the color of mahogany was walking up. He wore a black leather jacket, a dark violet shirt, black pants, and dark boots. I recognized him. He was there when Lilly and I were chasing Alex and the other guy.

"Alexian, couldn't you hold off from being rowdy for one day?" the man asked Alex, as he picked him up by his hair. The man looked at us, his greenish-blue eyes cold.

"I see you attracted the attention of these supposed 'heroes' of the city," the man observed, "and you made me have to use up my energy to save your ass from going to prison."

So, this guy must have been the one that pushed us backward.

"Who are you!?" Lloyd asked, standing up. The man looked at him.

"Why is that any of your business, Green Ninja?" the man asked rhetorically. I'm surprised he could recognize Lloyd without his uniform. In fact, none of us were in our gi. Sensei Wu and Sensei Garmadon were the only ones who weren't dressed casually.

"Now," the man started, "I don't want any of you filthy rats interfering with my work ever again. If you do go against my wishes, you will regret it."

I saw Alex hook arms with the man and they both disappeared into thin air.

Lloyd and I helped both of the senseis up.

"Who was that? How did he know who I was?" Lloyd asked his father. Garmadon looked over at Wu.

"That was Sebastian," Sensei Wu said, "the leader of The Liberators."


	29. Chapter 30

I stood there in shock. Sebastian didn't look like someone who would be the leader of The Liberators, in fact I thought he looked quite young. I expected an older guy to be the leader.

We went back to the monastery. I didn't speak a word. I was too deep in thought. I've tackled that guy before. He's shot Lilly in the arm. He seems to be whereever Alex is, too. Odd.

That night, my thoughts were on home. I'm seriously considering going back now, no matter the consequences. I am no threat, so why would the cops be called on me? I feel so dumb for thinking that earlier.

My thoughts were interrupted by Lilly coming into the room and saying "I see you're staring off into space again."

I sat up and looked at her. "No, I'm making a decision," I said.

"On what?" she asked, picking up her brush and brushing her long hair.

"If I should visit home or not," I answered without thinking. I didn't really want to share my personal stuff with her, or with anyone for that matter, but I keep letting it slip out. I feel like I'm being an attention hog by telling people everything I'm thinking or telling everyone my issues. I felt mad at myself for answering so easily without thinking.

"You should. You should probably explain to them what's going on, too," Lilly said. Well, my mom would already understand what's going on, but would dad and Luo understand it? Would I still seem like a witch? Would I be shamed for running away? My family would probably already be moving on to adopt a child to replace me or something. They'd probably get a boy, so someone could carry on the family name, and so they could be like their friends, who only have one girl and one boy, or both children are boys.

Really, if we did follow the customs my parents' friends do, I'd probably be in an orphanage or even worse. I'm lucky. Not everyone has it good.

I made my decision. I'm going anyway.

It's been a week since I've made my decision. I'm going to visit home today. I just decided to help my friends with a few things first. One of the training equipment machines was struck by lightning during a storm last night and now Jay's trying to fix it. Lloyd and I volunteered to go get a log that served a backbone for the machine.

"Can't we just roll this thing?" I asked as we carried it to the Monastery. Lloyd shook his head.

"Rolling it down this hill could result in something being damaged," he said. I sighed. At least we were almost there.

There was a brief period of silence, until Lloyd asked "Hey, could I tell you something?"

I nodded. Why not?

"To be honest, I thought you and Lilly were a couple," he said. I nearly dropped the log out of embarrassment. A couple!? I've only known her for two months! Although, it could probably happen in the future. You never really know. Just depends on what I do.

"Oh, well, I can see why. I do kinda hang around her a lot," I said, scratching my head.

"Yeah, but then again people could say the same thing about us, or how close Jay and Cole used to be," he said. I felt embarrassed again. I didn't realize how much I was around Lloyd, but he's the youngest one here, like me. Isn't natural for the younger people to stick around with each other than with the older people? I don't get why I'm feeling embarrassed now. It's probably how Lloyd said "People could say the same thing about us." It just reminds me of the times my mom would tease me for playing with the boys that lived nearby when I was younger. I hope I'm not teased for being around boys now.

That evening, Lilly dropped me off two blocks from Li Zhao's, so her dragon wouldn't cause a scene.

"If there's any issue, just use your cell phone," Lilly said. I gave a confused look.

"You realize I don't own one, right?" I said. Lilly gave a look of surprise, then handed me hers.

"Use mine, then. Any issue and either me or any if our friends will come get you," she said. She waved then flew off. Using this cellphone shouldn't be an issue. It's a flip phone anyway. I doubt there'll be an issue though. I put the phone in my pocket and walked to Li Zhao's.

I took a deep breath as I pushed the door to the noodle shop open, and braced for anything. I heard a gasp, then Luo yelling my name. I felt my sister hug me and I smiled.

"Where'd you go!? Grandmother said you weren't staying at her place," Luo asked me. I didn't want to tell her about the Monastery, so I just said "I stayed with a friend."

I saw my mother walking up, her black hair a little disheveled. The dark circles under her eyes had grown darker. I hugged her.

"Seiko. There was no reason to run away, it was going to be alright," she said softly.

"I realize that now. I probably should have stayed, so you could have explained to me what's going on," I said. She gave a look of slight surprise.

"I need to tell you something, but I'll tell you it later, okay?" I said. She'd probably understand everything with my powers and the ninja. I saw my father walk up, unchanged except for some slight stubble growing on his face, but someone was following him. I could recognize that long, shiny black hair and mustache anywhere.

"Evening, Seiko," Uncle Clouse said with no emotion. I froze.


	30. Chapter 31

It's been a while since I've seen my uncle. I really don't know how to act, especially since Sensei Garmadon knew him. It doesn't look like Uncle Clouse has aged at all though. He probably owns a fountain of youth that makes him look fifty all the time.

"Afternoon, Uncle, and father," I greeted. My father stepped forward.

"Where have you been!? Your mother and I've been worried sick!" my father said, scolding me.

"And he's saying I wasn't worried?" I heard Luo mumble. I sighed.

"I know I know, I'm a terrible daughter for making you all worried, but at least I'm not dead!" I said, trying to brighten the mood. It wasn't effective.

"We knew you weren't dead, but if you didn't have that witchcraft you might have been," my father said, worry in his voice. I froze again.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused again.

"The news was reporting on a mysterious car crash a few weeks ago and we saw you in the background, using that stuff you hit me with," Luo explained. I froze and nearly fainted. I swore I made the city black out during that. I don't remember seeing news vehicles.

"O-oh," I said, a nervous smile appearing on my face. I need to get out of this conversation now!

"P-please excuse me I need to use the restroom!" I said, running into the bathroom and locking the door. I sat on the floor and pulled my knees to my chest. They know. They know I was out fighting people. My dad's gonna be angry. They're all gonna be mad. I pretty much abandoned my family for nearly a month or so. I can understand why they'd be mad.

I heard a knock at the door.

"Seiko, everything's alright, you can come out now," my mother said. I stayed where I was. I heard her sigh.

"Seiko, I know you're just sitting on the floor in there, and you know I know how to pick locks," I heard my mother say, a hint of impatience in her voice. I've seen her pick locks many times before. I've only seen her do it when she lost the key to the shop, but I know she's probably done it other times.

I crawled over to the door and unlocked it. My mother opened the door and said "Now, could you please tell me what you said you were going to tell me later?" I nodded and followed her upstairs to the living room.

I explained everything to her and told her all what happened. My mother looked surprised to hear about Sensei Garmadon.

"I thought he was sent to the Underworld," my mother said, confused.

"Well, I wasn't told any of that but he's back evidently," I said. I didn't even know he was sent to the Underworld. I didn't even know an Underworld existed!

"Well, it's at least you weren't out on the streets all those weeks. I'm glad he and Wu are also teaching you about your elemental powers," my mother smiled. I smiled as well.

"You met the ninja!?" Luo gasped. I didn't notice that she had been hiding in the living room the whole time. I stood up immediately.

"You were eavesdropping weren't you!?" I shouted. I only wanted my mom to know what happened.

Luo shrugged. "So?" she said casually. I huffed.

"You used to get pissed at me for eavesdropping on you! What makes you think I won't be mad!?" I growled.

"Seiko, watch your profanity please," I heard my mother say. I narrowed my eyes. I always get annoyed when she says that.

"But still, you met them!? Why didn't you tell me!?" Luo asked.

"Because I didn't want to hear to squeal a million times," I said. Luo grabbed my shoulders.

"You gotta take me when you go back! Please!" she begged. I rolled my eyes.

"Luo, I don't know if Sensei Wu would like that. Besides, I don't even know how to summon my dragon," I said. I saw Luo make a face similar to what a puppy does when it begs for something. I turned away.

"Please don't do that," I said, trying to refrain from giggling.

"You can't resist it," Luo said.

"I don't think it would be a bad idea. Just show her around then bring her back home," my mother said. I groaned.

"But mom! I don't know ho-" my mother interrupted me by saying, "I'm sure it'll be okay,"

My mother came up and whispered in my ear "It'll shut your sister up for a while so do it for everyone's sake."

I groaned again and said "Fine." This is going to be torture.

I stood out in the hallway, waiting for Luo so we could leave. I'm starting to consider leaving without her. I've been waiting fourty minutes.

"So, you met Garmadon?" a voice next me to startled me. I noticed it was Uncle Clouse. He didn't look too happy. When did he ever look happy anyway!? How did he even know? Was he eavesdropping too!?

"Is there a problem with that?" I asked.

"I'm just giving you a reminder. Don't trust strangers," Uncle Clouse said. He walked off, leaving me confused. He's starting to act peculiar.

Lilly waited at the end of the block on her dragon after I called her. She gave me a weird look when I walked up with Luo.

"Karma, I didn't expect you to bring someone along," Lilly said.

"I know I know, but I made a deal with my mom to at least show my sister around the Monastery," I said. Lilly nodded.

"Alright then, I'll notify Nya, then we'll be on our way."

Let's just hope Luo doesn't make everyone deaf from her squealing.


	31. Chapter 32

"Wow! It's bigger than I thought it was!" Luo said in awe once we arrived at the Monastery, "I expected the Monastery to be really small. Like a tiny shrine of sorts."

 _Why would you think it'd be small when it has to house ten people!?_ I thought to myself. I really question my sister's intelligence sometimes. Once we hopped off the dragon, I immediately took her hand. She gave me a confused look.

"Seiko, I'm not eight. You don't have to hold my hand," she said.

"I know. I'm only holding your hand so you don't attack any of the ninja. Knowing you, I know you'll tackle one of them," I said. Luo grumbled.

"I doubt anyone's here anyway," I observed. I led her into the Monastery, hoping I was right.

Luo marveled at literally everything inside the building. It was starting to get embarrassing, especially since Lilly was giving me a your-sister-is-really-weird look. I just wanted this to be overwith so I could take her back home and forget that she literally stared at a wall in the hallway for a solid ten minutes.

It was while I was showing her the living room I heard footsteps that weren't ours. _No! Not now!_ I shouted in my head. Chaos is going to break out if one of the guys is here. I crossed my fingers, hoping it wasn't one of them.

Unfortunately, my luck ran out. Cole walked through the entryway to the living room, carrying a plate with two slices of cake on it, which he was eating. He looked surprised to see us here.

"Hey Karma and Lilly...and random girl...I didn't know you guys were back," he said between bites of cake.

"Karma's sister wanted a tour of the Monastery or something. Karma said her mother told her to," Lilly told him. I heard Luo gasp and stare in awe.

"Is that...THE Cole!?" Luo said, making sounds like she was hyperventilating. She ran up to him.

"I've been DYING to meet you and your team! I heard how you guys have been treating my little sister SO nicely!" Luo's speech gradually got faster, and I could tell Cole was overwhelmed.

"Oh hey guys," I heard Nya say as she entered the room. Thank god it wasn't Jay, Kai, or Lloyd. I'd prefer for chaos not to erupt. Luo gently pushed Cole out of the way and ran over to Nya. Unfortunately, the gentle push caused Cole to drop his plate, making the cake he was eating fall onto the floor, smashed by the plate. Cole dropped to his knees, mourning the loss of his dessert.

"Oh crap," I heard Lilly whisper, "You better hope Cole doesn't send your sister to the hospital after this."

"What?" I whispered.

"Cole doesn't get too friendly when you eat or destroy his cake," Lilly whispered. Geez, someone who hurts others over cake? Never heard of that.

"I don't know who you are but you kinda look like Kai. Are you his mom?" I heard Luo ask Nya. I facepalmed.

"Ahaha, I'm way too young to be the mother of him. I'm his sister," Nya said, sounding uncomfortable. Luo gasped.

"Sister!? I never knew!" she said in awe.

"I don't even know who you are so how would you know?" I heard Nya mumble. I grabbed Luo's hand.

"Okay, time to go," I said, using a fake polite voice. I was starting to get fed up with her. She is being a bit rude, too. Ignoring my sister's protests, I dragged her out of the living room. I got as far as the kitchen before chaos erupted again.

"Hey, Karma, could you help me with something?" Lloyd asked as I dragged my sister past the kitchen. I didn't notice him there.

"Oh, su-" I was interrupted by my sister pushing me out of the way.

"It's Lloyd!" she exclaimed, as I sat up. Great, even more chaos.

"I didn't know your sister was visiting, Karma," Lloyd observed, backing up a bit from how close Luo was.

"It was unexpected. My mom made me bring her along," I explained, getting up.

"This is so awesome! I wonder where Jay and Kai are," Luo said, excitement in her voice. Lloyd looked around.

"I haven't seen them all evening. I assumed they followed you and Lilly into the city," he said.

"I didn't seem them following us, but they might have. I don't know," I shrugged. Lloyd shrugged as well.

"So, they're missing?" Luo asked. I shook my head.

"They're probably going to stay out late or something. Sensei won't be happy since we have early morning training tomorrow," Lloyd said. I groaned at the sound of early morning training. I'm a part of it now. I train with the guys, like Lilly does sometimes. It's to get to know the team better.

Suddenly, I heard a door open and three people fall to the ground. Luo, Lloyd, and I rushed to the front room to see Jay lying on the floor, and Kai lying on top of him, the door ajar.

"Hey, look! They're back!" Luo said excitement. Both Kai and Jay got up and looked at Luo.

"Another new member of the team?" Jay asked. I shook my head.

"My sister paying a visit," I said. Luo ran up to them, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Wow, Jay's much taller than he looks on TV! And Kai...I dunno...you look the same," my sister observed. Her eyes widened again when she looked at Kai.

"Woah! I never noticed you had a scar!" Luo said, getting closer to Kai's face. Unfortunately, a loose spike in his hair poked her in the eye, causing her to stumble backwards, rubbing her eye. I guess that's what you get for getting in the face of someone who's hair looks like something out of an anime.

"Uh, sorry. Is your eye okay?" Kai asked Luo. She shook her head.

"Your hair is like a lethal weapon! It could take someone's eye out!" my sister said.

"Is that supposed to be a compliment or?" Kai asked, but before anyone could answer him, Nya called from the other room "Hey! I see lights coming up the hill! I think the Senseis are back!"

Kai and Jay's eyes grew wide and they ran into the room. Lloyd, Luo, and I followed, bewildered. We all looked out the window.

"I don't remember Sensei Wu and Sensei Garmadon driving separate cars," Lloyd said.

"That's because they don't..." Lilly said. Kai and Jay started to become white as snow. Lilly turned and looked at them.

"What's with you two!? You look like you've seen a ghost!" she said. Kai scratched his head.

"Nothing! Just...actually yes we did see a ghost!" he said, nervousness in his voice. Lilly raised an eyebrow.

Jay sighed. "We may or may not have got in a fight with a few guys and now I'm pretty sure they're after us."

Lilly crossed her arms. "You two should be lucky it will be easy to scare them off."

Kai shook his head. "No, you don't understand," he said, "We...messed with the crimson haired guy."


	32. Chapter 33

"You WHAT!?" Lilly shouted, stepping forward and grabbing Kai by the collar of his shirt. I remembered Sebastian's warning. _"Mess with my plans again and you'll regret it!"_ the voice echoed in my head. If there's one thing I know from movies and TV, it's that you don't underestimate the enemy. You may say "Oh, Sebastian is probably a weak lil' guy,", but I shouldn't underestimate him. Underestimating someone usually ends in disaster.

"Hey! He was talking shit about us!" Kai defended. Lilly narrowed her eyes.

"That's your reason for starting up crap!?" she growled.

"He did call you a few rude names that I'm not going to repeat. I thought you'd support our decision," Kai said.

"But I thought that was Nya he was tal-" Jay whispered, but was interrupted by Kai putting a finger to his lips. Lilly sighed and let go of him.

"What are we supposed to do with Karma's sister here?" Nya asked. Cole stepped forward.

"I say she hides somewhere in the Monastery, and then we all try to fend them off," he said. The others nodded in agreement. I took my sister's hand and led her down the hallway immediately.

"Seiko, what's going on? Who's this crimson-haired guy they were talking about?" Luo asked with a concerned expression.

"Luo, don't worry about it, okay? It's just a small issue," I said, trying not to make her worry. The expression she gave me showed that what I said made her worry even more. I sighed. I'd have to tell her the truth.

"Okay, so, this one guy doesn't like us now, and now he wants to hurt us because Jay and Kai made a horrible decision. None of us want you getting hurt so I want you to hide somewhere," I explained to her. She nodded in understanding.

We walked into Nya's room. I'm pretty sure there's a place for Luo to hide in here. My sister crawled into the closet and shut the door. I stayed there, deciding to watch over her. I doubted that any enemies would come into the Monastery, but it can happen. It's best if I stay prepared.

The Monastery was silent. It was a bit eerie in a way. I've never heard a place be this quiet. I enjoyed it a little bit.

The sound of glass shattering startled me. Someone must be trying to get into the Monastery. I took a katana off a shelf in Nya's room and walked to the door.

"I'll be right back, Luo. Stay put," I whispered to my sister. She gave a thumbs up and I walked out. I quietly walked down the hallway and followed the recurring sound of glass breaking. When I reached the living room, I noticed someone trying to get through the window. His fiery orange hair was falling out of his hoodie. Alex yet again. It seems like he likes to stray away from his group a lot.

"Hey!" I yelled, running to the window. I heard him curse and back out of it. I broke through what remained of the window and chased him down the hill. It was difficult to follow him because it was so dark outside, but I used sounds to help me. I could tell where he was going just by the location and sound of his shoes crunching the grass.

Suddenly, in the middle of the chase, I tripped over something, giving Alex the chance to run away. He disappeared into the night before I could get up. I noticed the thing that I tripped over was emitting light. I picked it up to see it was one of the keychain flashlights. Alex must have dropped it. How did I trip over it? That I don't know.

The flashlight gave me the ability to find my way back to the Monastery. From what I could see, I ran far. I started walking up the hill, but I stopped when I heard a scream. I froze. I don't why it worried me. It could have just been an enemy, but I doubt any of them have a voice like Jay's. Something's wrong. I need to get back, fast.


	33. Chapter 34

I navigated through the darkness with the small flashlight, looking for the way back to the Monastery. I was starting to feel nervous as I walked. 1, because I now think that was Jay screaming, and 2, I...sorta have a fear of the dark. It sounds childish, I know, but think about it. You never know what is hiding in the dark. A man with razor-sharp claw hands could be hiding in the darkness, waiting to see who he could chop up next.

I shivered as I thought of the possibilities of what could be hiding in the darkness around me. A psycho murderer could be in the darkness, watching me. A beast-like creature is probably waiting to make me it's midnight snack. Maybe a ghost is hiding amongst the trees, plotting to steal my soul.

I nearly shrieked when I heard a tree branch snap. I shined my flashlight on the trees, not finding any sign of a flesh-eating monster or anything for that matter. I looked down at my feet to see I had stepped on a twig. I felt a little embarrassed that I nearly screamed because I stepped on a twig. Good thing no one was around to see me chicken out like that.

I continued walking up the hill. I stopped when I saw a light similar to the lanterns that hang in front of the Monastery. I breathed a sigh of relief. I've found my way back. Hopefully everyone's alright. I hope that wasn't Jay screaming either.

As I walked towards the light, I noticed someone lying in the grass near the path. I shined my flashlight at them. I recognized the reddish-orange shirt and gray shorts.

"God damn it Luo! I told you to stay inside! Do you realize what danger you are in outside!?" I exclaimed, angrily, walking over to her. I didn't get a response from her. I sighed. Someone probably stunned her or something. I started to drag her to the Monastery. I couldn't pick her up, considering how much taller and heavier she was than me.

I suddenly felt a warm liquid on one of my hands. I breathed an annoyed sigh. Did she just pee on me or something? I had put my flashlight away so I couldn't see.

I approached the lantern lights, dragging my sister with me. I noticed the Monastery wasn't far from the lantern light. Only just a few feet. I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the Monastery. I stopped by the lanterns, so I could catch my breath. I leaned against the lantern post.

"You know, Luo, you're really heavy," I said. I don't mean to be rude, but she is. Imagine carrying or dragging your parents. Pretty heavy, huh? I took a minute to check my arms for any cuts or pricks from thorns. I froze when I noticed blood on my hand. Am I bleeding somewhere!? I'm pretty sure I would have felt pain if I was. I froze again when I realized where it came from.

I turned immediately to look at Luo. Her skin was extremely pale. There was a wound that stretched from her shoulder to her chest. I noticed she wasn't breathing either.

Out of realization and fear I screamed. I dropped to my knees, crying. I couldn't move. This all is a dream, it's gotta be. I should wake up in my room any minute now. Unfortunately, it's not a dream. My sister's dead, and it's all my fault. I chose to chase some idiot instead of protect her. If I had just stayed with her this wouldn't have happened. I could just hear my mother's voice in my head: "How could you leave her behind Seiko!?"

I heard someone running up, but I couldn't move. I was paralyzed in a sense.

"Karma? Karma? ...oh shit," I heard Lloyd's voice. I didn't move. I couldn't move. I felt Lloyd try to lift me up into standing position. I could hear running.

"Come on, let's get you inside," I heard Lloyd say. I didn't say anything. I still couldn't move. I felt like one of those movie heroines that can't move because they're paralyzed by sadness and fear. I heard Lloyd sigh, but he didn't sound annoyed.

I felt myself being lifted off the ground. Someone must be carrying me or something. What about Luo though!? Are they just going to leave her out there!? I hope not!

I noticed I was inside. I looked around, seeing that everyone was okay. Jay looked petrified though. In fact, he was crying too. What happened to him?

I laid in bed that night, still blaming myself for my sister's death. I feared facing my parents. I feared explaining everything that happened. I didn't want to move from my bed. I no longer wanted to do anything. A beacon of light I had in my life was gone.


	34. Chapter 35

It's been a week since my sister died. I've mainly spent the week in my room, just laying on my bed. I had lost my motivation to do anything. I haven't even slept that well either. I'm just a mess, aren't I? I'm pretty sure my hair is a tangled mess, and I probably don't smell the best since I haven't taken a shower at all.

This past week has been slightly eventful. My parents came by the day after Luo's death, but they didn't yell at me like I thought they would. In fact, my mother and father comforted me.

I found out what happened to Jay. Evidently, there was this strange woman with Sebastian and his crew. She had powers that manipulated Jay's mind into thinking his worst fears were actually happening. Sensei Wu had said she was a master of fear (yeah, evidently fear is an element. I'm surprised, too.) and her name is Misaki Kobayashi. Sensei Wu says she can be dangerous if she wants to. He says Misaki has the ability to bend or manipulate someone's mind to the point of death, or to the point where they want to die. It's pretty messed up, isn't it?

At least Jay is okay now. Although, I heard he's been avoiding Cole more than ever now. I wonder what Jay saw when Misaki messed with his mind.

Nothing else really has happened, or anything that concerns me at least. It's been a bit uneventful on my side of the tracks. The only other things that have happened is just Lilly's attempts to cheer me up. She's starting to get annoying with them. I understand she wants to see me happy again, but does she have to be so persistent with them!? Just, I wish she'd leave me alone.

I was alone for today at least. I enjoyed the quiet, and the distant chatter of two people having a conversation down the hallway. Suddenly, I heard the door to the room opening. I sighed. It's probably Lilly. Might as well tell her to leave me alone before she starts anything.

"Lilly, could you just leave me alone!? I understand you want me to be happy, but just give me a break already!" I shouted, turning from where I lay on my bed. I surprised to find Lloyd at the door instead of Lilly. He raised an eyebrow.

"Lilly? I get her and I look alike, but I'm not her," Lloyd laughed.

"What are you here for?" I asked him.

"I wanted to see how you're doing. You haven't really been out of your room, so I just wanted to see if everything was okay," he said, a bit of concern in his voice. I sighed. Why is he suddenly concerned on how I'm doing? I just want to be left alone!

"I'm fine, alright?" I said, accidentally coming off as annoyed. Lloyd's expression didn't change.

"Listen, Karma, I know losing a family member is tough, but you can't dwell on it for very long," he said. I felt a little offended. Is he saying I should forget about Luo!?

"Why would I need to forget about Luo!?" I asked in a offended voice. Lloyd shook his head.

"No, you heard me wrong. I'm saying you shouldn't stay focused on her passing for a long time. I'm sure your sister would want you to continue on with your life, instead of you spending it mourning her," Lloyd explained, stepping out of the doorway and into the room. I thought it about it. Luo would want me to continue on. In fact, she probably would have been in Lilly's place through this ordeal if she were here. My thoughts shifted then. Luo would be mad at me for not protecting her though. She'd be angry over how I abandoned her to chase down a walking carrot. She'd want me to feel guilty over my actions and stay immobile.

"I think she'd want me to feel guilty for abandoning her and not staying to protect her," I said quietly. Lloyd gave a confused look.

"Karma, no. I doubt she-" I interrupted him by yelling, "Yes she would! I'm the one who left her on her own! _I'm_ the reason why she's dead!" Tears started to stream down my face. Lloyd kneeled down and put his hands on my shoulders.

"Stop telling yourself that. It's not true," he said, "It's the enemy's fault. They're the ones who chose to harm her." He had a point, but somewhere inside, I still felt like it was my fault.

"Your sister was brave. I believe Jay would have died if she didn't stop Misaki," Lloyd continued. My tears stopped. What does he mean? No one told me this.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Your sister stopped Misaki from driving Jay to the point of death. She ran outside and tried to fend Misaki off. It gave us time to get Jay away, but not enough time to save her," Lloyd explained. I felt tears streaming down my face again. My sister was a hero. She saved a hero. I felt proud, almost like how a parent feels when their child wins an award, but more proud than that.

"So," Lloyd started, "please don't dwell on her death for too long. If you need to talk to someone, feel free to talk to any of us, okay?" I nodded. He smiled and stood up.

"Oh, by the way, I heard you like 'broomstickijitsu', so you can train with a bo staff if you want. It's pretty similar to a broomstick," Lloyd said before walking out. I felt a little embarrassed now. I'm sure Broomstickijitsu sounds like a childish thing to them. I guess I could learn bo-staff-i-jitsu now.


	35. Chapter 36

"Careful where you're spinning that," Jay said as he walked by me. I was training with the others in the warm afternoon sun. I was training with the metal bo staff. I got the hang of it quicky, seeing how similar it was to fighting with a mop, minus the fluffy part.

"Sorry," I apologized, switching hands so the staff was in the right instead of the left.

"You alright? Is what Misaki did still bothering you?" I asked Jay as he picked up his nunchuks. He shook his head.

"I prefer not to think about it though," he said, spinning the top nunchuk. The look on his face showed that the memories returned. I regretted asking now. Did I make him recall the memories of his fears?

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring back those horrible memories," I apologized again.

"No, no, it's okay. That's not what I'm thinking about," Jay said, shaking his head. He walked away, accompanying Lloyd in a sparring match. I can't help but still feel bad for him. Whatever he saw must have been traumatizing. Traumatizing enough to make him avoid Cole. I'm sure what he saw had to do with Cole, but what could it be?

During training, I was called into the living room by my friends. I thought they were just going to talk to me about my training, but no. I was wrong.

"We were thinking of having you assist us with something," Cole said. Assist them with something? Oh, this will be fun!

"What is it?" I asked. Maybe I can be that one badass character that comes in at the last minute to mess all the bad guys up, or maybe I get to go on a big mission!

"Do you think you can go into disguise and try to get some information out of someone?" Cole asked. This I wasn't sure about. My acting skills aren't the greatest. This will probably be similar to how I used to interrogate my sister. I used to try to find out who her boyfriend was or who bullied her by getting the info to slip out while she talked. Not sure if that would work for this situation though.

"Uh, sure, I guess," I replied, unsure. I don't know if I'd be able to pull off this kind of thing. "What am I going to disguised as exactly?"

"You will be disguised as a woman," Cole said, not really being specific. I gave him an are-you-serious look. How the hell do they think I'll be able to pull that off!? I look more like a little girl than a woman!

"Why didn't you guys choose Lilly or Nya for this? They look much more like women. I look like a little girl!" I said.

"They both declined. Lilly even said she had bad acting skills," Jay explained.

"Hey! I didn't say they were bad...just not the best!" Lilly argued.

"Anyway," Cole continued, "do you think you can do it?"

I thought about it for a minute. I guess I could pass as a woman if I tried hard enough.

"Alright," I said, "I'll do it."

I walked up to the place where whoever we're interrogating. It was a small dance club. I was supposed to get information out of one of Sebastian's henchmen, who is known as Seok Seung. All I had to do was find out where all of The Liberators meet. We'd be able to take them down then.

The others are in disguises, too. I do not know what they're disguised as though. Kinda hard for me to run to them for help if I don't know who they're dressed as.

I entered the club, feeling like the volume of the music could possibly make me deaf. I could hear the sound of music. A mix of EDM and electronic music. Really, it kinda sounded like robots making a bunch of noise. I nearly tripped over my shoes again. I'm probably having trouble standing on these because I stored my bo staff in one of them. My bo staff is retractable. It retracts into a small, skinny cylinder about the length of a bottle. It's not the most comfy thing to put in your shoe.

I looked through the crowds of people for someone who matched Seok's profile. It was slightly hard, since black hair is a common thing in Ninjago. I have seen Seok's face before though, so really this shouldn't be that hard.

While I was looking for Seok in the crowds, I ended up accidentally running into someone, causing me to fall.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," a male voice said, most likely belonging to the person who I just ran into. He offered his hand to help me up. I took it. I took a moment to look at his face and I nearly ran away. The guy I ran into was Alex, aka the "walking carrot". I could recognize him immediately, but I doubted he recognized me. I decided to go on with my act.

"Thank you," I said with a smile. He nodded.

"Um, by the way, you're, uh, kinda cute," Alex said, stuttering a bit. I froze. Is he attempting to flirt with me!? I shivered in disgust in my head. Might as well go along with it so my cover isn't blown. This is going to be torture.

I giggled, trying not to make it sound forced. I saw Alex make a relived smile.

"So, uh, you wanna dance?" he asked. Geez, he's more awkward than anything.

"Sure," I replied with fake cheerfulness. Well, I could get info out of him instead of Seok.

"So," I started, "what kind of talents do you have?" A weird question to ask at first, but I should at least not jump to the question about his job first. I don't think anyone asks that question first.

"Well, I'm bilingual. I can speak English and Russian," Alex said with pride. It wasn't that impressive. I'm fluent in four languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean (well, I can't speak it, but I can read it). Japanese was my first language. I had to learn Chinese so I could communicate with the members of my mom's side of the family who cannot speak English. English is a common language spoken in Ninjago, despite all the signs being a mix of Japanese and Chinese. I only learned how to read and write in Korean so I could write letters to my friend, Myung, who lives in a place called Stiix.

I decided not to act dumb and act impressed. "But aren't the signs in this city a mix of Japanese and Chinese?" I questioned. From the look I saw on Alex's face, I could tell he was panicked inside.

"Oh, well, I forgot those...ehehe.." he said, scratching the back of his head. I could tell he was lying at this point, but I acted impressed. "So, what about you?" Alex asked, "I told you my talents, maybe you can tell me yours."

"Well, I've been told I'm great at running. I've thought about entering a marathon sometime," I lied. Well, it wasn't all a lie. I did make the school track team, but I will never enter a marathon. He looked genuinely impressed.

"Wow. I'd cheer you on if you choose to enter it," Alex smiled. Just then, a song came on, and I immediately recognized the vocalist. Meiji Gahata, my favorite singer. I've never heard her sing songs in the dance or pop genre before. It was pretty decent, but I prefer her rock songs more. I heard Alex make a disgusted sigh.

"I really hate Meiji, why'd they have to play one of her songs?" I heard him grumble. I brushed off his opinion. Really, I don't care if he likes Meiji or not. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

"She's only popular because of how she dresses. Someone should tell her to put a shirt on," Alex grumbled. Okay, that's it, I'm drawing the line. I felt angry inside. _Who cares about how she dresses!?_ Just enjoy the music, you twit!

"Please excuse me. I'll be right back," I said, keeping my cool. Alex nodded and I walked to the bathrooms. I stopped when I saw three people leaning on the wall near the bathrooms. I immediately recognized them as Kai, Lilly, and Cole. For some reason, Cole was wearing a bucket on his head.

"Finally! I couldn't find any of you guys earlier!" I exclaimed.

"I thought Lilly told you where we all were going to be," Kai said, confused. I shook my head. Lilly shrugged.

"Whoooooops," she said, accompanied by a hiccup and a giggle. Well, she's acting odd.

"Um, is Lilly okay?" I asked.

Kai sighed. "Some guy told her this drink he made was a new kind of soda and...she's kinda loopy now," he said, glancing at her, "You'd think someone like her would know a lie when she sees it."

"Hey. Hey. Hey. I know your hair used to be blonde and you used to star in a video game, so don't even try me. I'll tell everyone you used to be blonde," Lilly threatened. Kai gave an are-you-really-freakin-serious face. I tried refrain from laughing.

I looked at Cole. "Now, why are you wearing a bucket on your head?" I asked, still trying to refrain from laughing. The fact that he was dressed up and wearing a bucket on his head was so ridiculous it was funny.

"I almost had my cover blown by this one lady who recognized me by my eyebrows. My. Goddamn. EYEBROWS. How!? I don't know but I am creeped out. Why would you recognize someone by their eyebrows!?" Cole exclaimed. He looked to the right and his eyes widened. "Crap, I think that's her!" He quickly pulled the bucket the rest of the way onto his head, covering his face. He looked like an idiot to be honest.

The lady he spotted stopped to look at us. I noticed her hair was hot pink and wavy, with a blue streak down the side. Her skin looked tan, but it was hard to tell because of the lighting. She raised an eyebrow.

"I think your friends need help," the lady said, speaking to Kai and I. She walked off without another word. Cole lifted the bucket slightly.

"Is she gone?" he asked. I nodded. Cole breathed a sigh of relief and pushed up the bucket, revealing his face.

"Why a bucket though? It kinda makes you look like an idiot to be honest," I said.

"There's bartenders wearing traffic cones on their heads in here so why not?" Cole said. There were bartenders wearing traffic cones, but the bucket is what makes Cole stick out like a sore thumb. I shook my head.

"Listen, Karma, could you hurry? I don't really like standing around in this place, and I'm sure one of us is going to get our cover blown soon," Kai said.

"I'm trying! I can't just up and go 'Hey baby you should totally tell me where your workplace is located because that's sexy'," I said impatiently, crossing my arms. Rushing through this would blow our cover faster.

Kai sighed. "Okay, but try to hurry, please," he said, looking a little impatient.

"Alright alright," I said, walking away to go join Alex. I want to get out of here as much as Kai does, but it's going to take time. Not a lot of time now, though. I'm pretty sure I've convinced Alex now that I'm no threat.

"You alright? You were gone for a long time," Alex said, looking a little concerned.

I nodded. "Just had to use the ladies room," I said. Alex nodded and we continued to dance.

"You know, I wanted to ask, do you have a job?" I asked. I hoped I didn't rush this question.

"Oh, yeah. I'm a...the CEO of a rich business!" he said. It was so obvious he wasn't. I decided to act dumb just this once so I wouldn't mess this up.

"Wow! That's cool!" I exclaed, smiling. He nodded.

"Where's your business located?" I asked. Alex looked slightly panicked.

"Um, well, I forgot where it was," he lied. It was obvious he was. I sighed in my head. This is about to get embarrassing. I brought my face closer to Alex's, causing his face to become red. I'm surprised I could do this, considering my height. I've seen ladies do this in movies before. They got the answer out of the guy faster if they made an offer her couldn't resist too. I tried to think one up fast.

"But how will I be able to visit you at work? You know, I'm great at baking, and maybe someday I could bring sweets to you while you're at work," I smiled. The part about me being great at baking was a lie. I actually don't know how to bake any sweets.

"I-It's nearby Borg Industries. Three blocks away," Alex said, his face becoming gradually more red the longer I lingered near his face. I pulled away from him, smiling. I got the info I needed.

"This is the last song of the night, people!" the DJ's voice boomed over the speakers. The voice sounded similar to Jay's. I knew it wasn't actually the last song of the night. Jay was giving me a chance to escape to the alley by this place, where everyone will meet. I quickly spotted and exit, but I knew I couldn't leave yet. It'd be obvious I was acting if I left now.

In the middle of the song, Alex started pulling closer to me. I knew he was going to attempt to kiss me. All I have is one thing to say: Oh hell no. Once he got close enough, I slid to the right and made a run for the exit, dodging people on the way there. Sorry Alex, you're not that lucky. My first kiss is reserved for someone else.

I darted through the exit door and out into the alley. I felt a sense of victory. Despite how embarrassing it was, I still completed my objective. I leaned against the alley wall to catch my breath. I smiled. I'd be an excellent actress, or Alex was enough of a numbskull to be blind to my bad acting skills.

I was too busy feeling victorious to notice somebody coming up behind me. Before I knew it, a hand was over my mouth and something cold and metallic was jabbed into my back (probably a gun. Who knows.)

"Move and it's lights out for you, Oompa Loompa," a male voice. Ugh, when are people gonna stop calling me this!? I'm short, but I'm not that short!

 _Great, this is just great_ , I thought. I thought I could get through this without any trouble, but it looks like fate had other plans for me. I'm pretty much stuck at this point, since this dude has a gun.

Just then, a plan formed in my mind. A great plan, but there was only one problem. If I messed up even the slightest, I'd be blown to bits.


	36. Chapter 37

I crossed my fingers in my head. I'll make it. I know it. I just have to get the timing right.

In one swift motion, I swung my leg backwards, hitting the guy somewhere, then I ducked to avoid the gunshot. I couldn't tell if I hit his stomach or groin. I didn't care. In another motion, I kicked him in the face and caught my staff, which had slid out of my shoe. I ended the motion by landing in a handstand. Everything is going according to plan.

I pressed a button on my staff, which extended it's length to the normal length. I knocked the gun out of the man's hand with my bo staff and knocked him off his feet and onto the ground. All in 15 seconds. That's a new personal best.

I pointed the end of my staff at the stranger's neck. I knew it wouldn't really do much, but if he tried anything I could jab him in the throat. Hopefully he doesn't throw up on me if I have to do that. I took a moment to look at the man's face while he was still dazed. He looked oddly familiar. He had stubble, brown hair stuffed into a beanie, and I swore he was wearing a white hoodie under his jacket. I suddenly recognized who it was.

"Anthony!? What the hell!?" I said in disbelief. Why would he attack me if he and Lilly were allies? Unless...

"Let me guess, you're a double agent," I said, angry now. Was he deceiving Lilly before she met me? Was he still deceiving her then?

"Hey, listen, there had to be something surprising in this story! I'm a minor character though, so this probably isn't as surprising," Anthony grumbled. What is he even talking about? I swear, he's on something.

"What? You don't know what's going on!? You don't realize there are many people watching us right now!? I thought everyone knew this!" Anthony exclaimed, sounding even more crazier than he already was.

"There are people who control the universe and control your life. They decide your every action and thought!"

"Dude, you need to lay off whatever you're eating or whatever," I said. He's really lost his mind.

"Karma!?" I heard someone call my name from the west. It sounded like the voice belonged to Kai, although at the same time it sounded like it belonged to Cole. I wasn't sure who was calling my name, but it was someone from my band of friends.

"Listen, Anthony, I need to go. You have with your conspiracy theories, alright?" I smiled then ran away.

"Wait! I wasn't done!" I heard Anthony yell. I sighed. Geez, is that what it's like talking to people who are on drugs? They're probably the people who write alien abduction and ghost stories. Don't they know aliens and ghosts aren't real!? Some people are just too silly.

I found my friends on the other side of the building. I noticed that Cole was still wearing the bucket on his head, Lilly looked drowsy now and was still leaning on Kai's shoulder, and Jay was wearing high heels for some reason. I didn't see Nya around.

"Um, why is Jay wearing heels? And where's Nya?" I asked.

"I lost my shoes while we were in there and this was the only pair I could find. I have to admit though, they are stylish," Jay explained, looking down at the heeled shoes. I was about to ask how he even lost his shoes in that club, but I decided not to.

"My sister's waiting for us nearby. She brought her samurai mech just in case things got out of hand," Kai said. Samurai mech!? SAMURAI MECH!? I've never seen a samurai have a mech in a movie! I must see it for myself! Oh I wonder what it looks like. Does it look like those giant robots in SciFi movies? Or maybe it's a tiny metal suit. Or maybe...

The sound of a cellphone ringing snapped me out of my daydream of various samurai mech designs.

"That would probably be her," Kai said, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket and answering it. I saw him nod a few times then hang up.

"So? Anything new?" Lloyd asked.

"Evidently Misaki and her henchmen know we're here, and are trying to find us," he announced. Well, that's just great. How does this Misaki lady even know we're here!?

"Well," Lilly started. She lifted part of the vest she was wearing and blades of all kinds fell out. Her katana, a few knives, shurikens, and a smoke bomb.

The guys stepped back in shock."How the-!?" Jay said, surprised.

Lilly put a finger to her lips. "Woman's secret," she smiled. If it's a woman's secret, how come I don't know how to do that!? I count as a woman, right!?

Everyone picked up a blade while I stood there with my bo staff. I questioned how Lilly could hold all those blades in her vest without cutting herself. I mean, the shirt she is wearing couldn't have protected her.

"We should probably split up to find the way to the park, where Nya's mech is," Kai said, looking around. I saw Cole nod.

"So, how about-" Lloyd started, but was interrupted by Kai saying "Lloyd, you go with Jay. Karma, you go with Buckethead over there."

Lloyd looked as if he was about to tell Kai off for interrupting him, but he stayed silent and walked over to Jay.

We split off into our pairs and took different paths.

"That's the fifth time you've run into a wall, Cole," I said as we walked down an alleyway. The bucket had gotten stuck on his head while we were walking. Now, he keeps running into walls.

"Well, if you could just tell me where I'm going I wouldn't have this problem!" Cole argued, crossing his arms.

I sighed and grabbed his sleeve, leading him down the alley.

"Thanks, now if only we could get this bucket off my head," Cole said, pointing at the bucket.

"I'm sure we'll find a way," I assured him. It's pretty easy to get something like that off someone's head. All it takes is hot water.

Suddenly, I spotted two people ahead who looked to be eavesdropping on something. I recognized them immediately when I saw one had short blonde hair. Lloyd and Jay's path must have crossed onto ours. Cole and I quietly snuck over to them, trying not to interrupt what they were eavesdropping on.

"I'm pretty sure she dumped your ass, Alex," I heard a female voice say.

"No, no. I'm sure this is like Cinderella in a way. I have to search the land to find her, and save her from her evil stepsisters," I heard Alex say.

"Are you that stupid?" I heard the lady say.

"What!? Are you jealous?" Alex teased.

"No. Just...why the hell are you so attached to a girl you just met? She can't be that great. She can't truly be great until you know her well enough. People can decieve you easily," the lady said. It sounded like she knew that I was faking it.

"But she is great! I mean, she's cute, she has a nice-" Alex was interrupted by the lady.

"I don't mean physically. A person's personality and how they treat you should matter more than how they look," the lady said, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah, I was just about to say she had a great personality! What did you think I was about to say? You little perv," Alex said, sounding a little embarrassed. I heard someone in our group grumble. I couldn't tell who it was.

"Anyways, Miss Kobayashi said she had caught someone a few minutes ago, or that's at least what she texted me. That'd be one down, nine to go," I heard the lady say. I froze. What does she mean "one down"? Then I realize what she meant. There are ten of us, counting the Senseis and Misako. The senseis and Misako are back at the Monastery. Cole, Lloyd, Jay, and I are all in this group. That means, Misaki has either caught Kai, Nya, or Lilly. I instantly felt a sense of dread. No, I don't want Misaki to make them suffer like she made Jay. I needed to find them NOW!

I immediately got up and ran back the way Cole and I came from. I followed the path Kai and Lilly took. As I ran, I hoped nothing had happened to them yet. I hoped that they were alright. I hoped I wasn't too late.


	37. Chapter 38

I was nearly out of breath when I ran straight into somebody. I don't know how I didn't see them. They're taller than me, I should have seen them.

"Karma? I thought you took the other path with Cole," I heard Kai say, confused. I noticed that he was the person I ran into.

"I did, but we listened in to a conversation between two henchmen an-" I stopped talking when I noticed Lilly wasn't with him.

"Where's Lilly?" I asked him.

"I had lost track of where she went minutes ago. I've been trying to find her since," Kai said, looking a bit worried. I cursed under my breath. You couldn't keep track of one of your own teammates!?

"Come on!" I yelled and ran ahead.

"Wait! What did the henchmen say!?" Kai asked as he followed me.

"They said Misaki caught someone from our group! That someone could either be Lilly or Nya. There's no way she could have caught anyone else," I said. Kai's eyes widened, then he looked angry.

"Misaki better not do anything to my sister," he said.

"Or to anyone for that matter!" I yelled.

"How the hell did you lose track of Lilly though!?" I asked as we ran. I mean, she has been leaning on his shoulder the whole time. I would have thought his shoulder felt lighter.

"Listen, people get distracted once in a while, okay!?" Kai argued, sounding frustrated.

"Distracted enough to not notice her walking away!?" I yelled, feeling frustrated as well. How could someone not notice that!?

"Karma, I'm not paranoid like you! I can't detect everyone's sudden movements!" Kai yelled, frustrated and angry. I looked back and glared at him. Paranoid!? I'm not paranoid!

I heard Kai sigh. "I'm just as worried as you are, but chill. I messed up, okay? Everyone messes up," he said in a much calmer voice. I stayed quiet and looked ahead again. I guess he had a point, I mean, everyone does make mistakes. I guess I just got too worried. No wonder he called me "paranoid".

"Hey, Kai, I-" I turned to apologize, but stopped when I noticed he wasn't there. I stopped running. Where could he have gone!? Did he ditch me? I looked around, slowly noticing how dark it was. The darkness in this alleyway gave me the ideas that a murder was hiding in here. He probably already caught Kai and Lilly, and I'm next.

I shivered. This is horrible. Of all things, why darkness!? Someone could have dropped a spider on me and that would have been much more better than this.

I nearly shrieked when I heard voices. I stopped panicking so I could try to listen in, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I followed the sound of the voices so I could try to find out who was talking. As I got closer, I thought I could hear Nya's voice. I started to become more sure that it was Nya's voice as I neared the location of the voices.

"I must say, Nya, you are quite the failure. That's at least all I can see in your life," I heard a female voice say. I peeked around the corner to see I was behind a woman with light purple hair pulled into a curly ponytail. Her clothing looked like a Halloween costume. She was talking to a wide-eyed Nya. I noticed Kai lying in the fetal position on the ground.

"Shall I give you another glimpse at your past and soon-to-be failures? A reminder of how you hide your failures behind the mask of 'Samurai X'?" the woman said, enjoying this way too much. The way this woman spoke could only lead me to one conclusion. She's Misaki. She had to be.

I held my bo staff tightly in my hand. I need to stop her now before she hurts anyone else. I decided I'd knock her down, just to catch her off guard and distract her long enough for everyone to get away. That always works in movies!

I ran towards her, aiming to hit the back of her neck. Before I could make any kind of move, she turned suddenly and kicked me in the stomach. I fell onto the ground, feeling like I was going to throw up from the kick to my stomach. I guess movie logic doesn't always work.

"Wow, you sure got here fast. Wonder why you couldn't do the same the night of your sister's death," Misaki smiled. Now that was a non-physical kick to the stomach, or a kick in the heart. My hatred for Misaki grew.

"What's your deal!? What the hell do you want with us!?" I shouted.

Misaki made a small laugh. "I just want you all out of my way, child. You see, you little ninjas all are like those tall weeds that block entryways. The only way I can get to my goal, the entryway, is by cutting you all down," she said, her smile not fading. Her smile was starting to creep me out.

"What is your goal anyway? Let me guess, taking over this small country? Let me tell you something, there are planets that rain diamonds out there that would be far more enjoyable than taking over this country," I said. Misaki was silent for moment, that started laughing as if she heard the funniest joke ever.

"You really think I'm only after Ninjago?" she said, still laughing, "Oh, that's hilarious."

I was confused. Wasn't that what all villains wanted? Control over a country? This is entirely new. What exactly does she want then? I mean, Sebastian, the leader of The Liberators, works for her. That could only lead to the conclusion that she is the actual leader of The Liberators, who want to change the government. So, that would mean she would get control of Ninjago if The Liberators succeed. If she doesn't want control of this country, then why do The Liberators even exist?

Before I could even ask her, I saw Misaki dodge a bucket that was thrown at her. I saw Cole, Jay and Lloyd running up. I watched Misaki hop backwards and grab the hand of someone on the roof, who pulled her up. She disappeared into the night.

"Are you alright?" Lloyd asked as he helped me up. I nodded.

"Yeah, but I don't know about the others," I said, looking over at Kai and Nya. I noticed Cole helping up a petrified-looking Lilly. I didn't even notice she was here.

"Misaki must have gotten to them. I'm surprised she didn't mess with you, too," Lloyd said. I was a little relieved the same didn't happen to me, but at the same time, I felt that I should have been the one that suffered instead of them. I should have been the one who was caught by Misaki instead of them.

I shouldn't have dillydallied. I should have tried to find Kai and Lilly.


	38. Chapter 39

"What are you doing?" Lilly asked me the next morning as I looked at her scarred hand.

"Just looking at it. I might draw on it," I said, smiling. Lilly gave a confused look.

"Why my hand though? Doesn't everyone usually draw on each other's faces?" she asked. I laughed a little.

"That's for when people are asleep, Lilly," I said, "Besides, scars are cool, and I have a way I can make it look cooler."

"Why can't you just draw on Kai's face instead?" Lilly asked as I drew a triangle on her hand.

"I don't feel like running from a flaming porcupine today," I said, adding little stick arms and legs to the triangle.

"I suppose it wouldn't be good to tick him off today," I heard Lilly mumble to herself as I added a top hat and an eye to the triangle, finishing the drawing. I watched her look at the drawing.

"Is that the Illuminati?" she asked, confused. I giggled a little bit. I have no idea what a "Illuminati" is, but it sounds like something silly. With a name like that, it has to be.

"Nope. It's a thing called Mr. Triangle. He was in a show I watched as a kid," I informed her, remembering the show. I loved that show so much, it's a shame I've forgotten most of it. I'm surprised she didn't know who he was. The show used to be really popular.

I saw Lilly smile a little bit. I could tell she liked it, but at the same time I thought her smiling was...odd. I thought she would have been paralyzed in a sense by whatever Misaki showed her. Instead, she's been acting like her usual self. The only thing out of the ordinary? She hasn't left this room at all, except for food and bathroom breaks. It's like she's avoiding everyone, which is really weird.

It seems so weird because everyone who has been messed with by Misaki avoids one person. Jay is avoiding Cole and Kai is avoiding Nya. I thought Nya would have been the only one who's avoiding multiple people. I kinda feel bad for Jay and Cole, since she is avoiding them. I wonder what Lilly saw when Misaki messed with her. I wonder what everyone who was affected saw.

While I was taking a walk around the Monastery, I found Lloyd sitting by door outside. He had his eyes closed and looked to be deep in thought, so I didn't bother him. Instead, I kinda watched him. That's not creepy, right? Then again, I've always kind of liked to watch people do whatever. I'm weird...I know.

"Trying to sneak up on me?" I heard Lloyd ask suddenly. He didn't even open his eyes. I'm surprised he knew that I was there.

"Oh, no. I was just...admiring the forest in the distance," I lied. It'd be awkward to tell him that I was watching him.

I saw Lloyd open his eyes, revealing their emerald green color. He smiled. "Yeah, it's pretty, but I've seen better sights."

"Like what?" I asked. I'm sure he's seen many beautiful places. Lilly has said they used to travel a bunch.

Lloyd looked at me and smiled. "I may have seen a bunch of beautiful places...but there was this one place in the mountains that my dad took me to, and it was absolutely breathtaking. I really want to go there again someday," he said. It sounded cool. I've never really been to the mountains. I've only seen pictures and videos on TV. In fact, I've never really been to any beautiful places, except for the village where my Grandmother's home is located. The cheery blossom trees there look so beautiful in April, the time when they are in bloom.

"Hey, could I ask you a question?" I heard Lloyd ask. Yeah, Lloyd, I'll listen to what you have to say, but why ask if you could ask a question if you're already asking one? Just a random thought.

"Sure," I replied. Why does he even need to ask if he can ask a question?

"You mind accompanying me to a shop in the village? I need to go pick up something for my uncle, and I thought you'd probably like to see the village or something," Lloyd said.

I nodded. "Sure. I haven't really gotten to see much of the village since I got here," I said. It was true. I've only seen the parts of the village I could see from Lilly and I's window.

"Alright. We should probably get going then. My uncle can't go without tea for a long time," Lloyd said, starting to walk towards the village. Of course, the thing Sensei Wu wanted was tea. It's literally almost the only thing I've seen the old man consume.

"Is tea what keeps him alive or something?" I asked, following Lloyd. He shook his head.

"No. My mom says he goes through 'tea withdrawal', and evidently Uncle Wu looks and acts really scary during that," Lloyd explained. I tried to imagine Sensei Wu as a scary person, but I couldn't really see it. Old people can't even pull off looking scary anyway.

As we walked through the village, I noticed how different the houses looked to the ones in the village my grandmother lives in. The ones in my grandmother's village looked much older than these. I suppose this village doesn't look old because it was probably build at the same time the Monastery was built.

As we walked, I noticed two boys that looked to be my age kicking around a soccer ball.

"Did you see my 'Super Starlight Kick'!?" one boy asked the other, excited. The other boy rubbed his chin. He gave a thumbs up.

"I give it my seal of approval," he smiled. I laughed to myself a little bit. They kinda reminded me of my sister and I. Then, I felt a pang of sadness. They remind me of my sister and I. _They remind me of my sister._ I gradually felt more upset the longer I stared. I started to miss my sister even more.

"Hey, Karma, are you okay?" I heard Lloyd ask, snapping me out of my sadness. I shook it off.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, forcing a smile so he wouldn't be so worried. I didn't want him to ask why I was down.

"Oh, okay. You just looked a little upset," Lloyd said, looking slightly concerned.

"I'm alright. Don't worry, okay?" I smiled, just to reassure him. He nodded.

"By the way," Lloyd said, "Have you noticed how the people who have been attacked by Misaki avoid certain people?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's strange. Do you think they have huge fears about the other person?" I asked. If so, that would technically mean Lilly is afraid of everyone but me. Weird.

"I doubt that, considering the relationship between Kai and Nya. I think that Misaki is trying to turn them against each other so the bond of this team can be broken," Lloyd said, rubbing his chin. But why would Misaki want to destroy the team?

"Why would she?" I asked.

"If she destroys this team, we won't be in her way anymore. Whatever plan she has will succeed, and if she chooses to, she could make one of us join her," Lloyd said. It sounded frightening. Just having the power of fear can do that? Misaki's much more powerful than I thought. Though, hearing that Misaki is turning us all against each other, that means she's now targeting Lloyd, Cole, and I.

We approached a small shop near the end of the village. I noticed a girl, with hair that was a mix of the colors black and blue, sitting behind the counter, looking quite bored. Business must be slow at this shop. A cheerful smile grew on the girl's face as we walked in.

"Hello! Welcome to Ruby's Tea Shop!" the girl waved. I was a little surprised at how the girl could go from bored to cheerful in one second.

"Yeah, I know, lame tea shop name, right? I should have taken that stranger's advice and named it 'Shake Your Bootea'," the girl said, giggling nervously. She must have noticed my surprised expression.

"No, no, Ruby, it's very unique," Lloyd smiled. Ruby blushed and murmured a thanks.

"So, what brings you and your friend here?" she asked.

"I came to pick up the tea order for my uncle," Lloyd said. Ruby rose from her seat immediately.

"I forgot!" she yelled as she dashed into the backroom of the tea shop. She returned almost immediately with a bag marked with Sensei Wu's name.

"I added something extra, just in case your uncle runs out of tea early, that you won't have to be running to this place and back a whole ton," Ruby smiled.

"My uncle will be grateful. Thank you, Ruby," Lloyd said, then walked out. I followed him, feeling uncomfortable with Ruby staring at us as we walked out. No offense to her, but staring is creepy.

"Hey, Karma, could I ask you another question?" Lloyd asked as we walked back to the Monastery. I nodded.

"Could you accompany me on another errand? This one is a little more important," he said, looking a little more serious.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I thought about visiting the building where Misaki is, just to see if she's actually there," Lloyd said. I nearly froze. Is he crazy!?

"Kai mentioned the idea, and it actually didn't sound too bad for once. We do have to make sure Alex didn't scam you," Lloyd said. He had a point.

"Uh, sure," I said, making sure I didn't sound too scared. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Karma! Why are you so scared of Misaki!? She's just a freak that wears Halloween costumes!" is probably what you're thinking, right? Despite Misaki actually being a bit frightening, she's not the thing I'm afraid of. What I'm afraid of is Lloyd getting hurt, physically or mentally, by Misaki. It sounds weird, I know, but you'd want to protect one of your best friends from a whacko lady in a vampire costume too, right?

I just want to make sure Lloyd doesn't get hurt at all during this errand.


	39. Chapter 40

After dropping the tea off at the Monastery, Lloyd and I headed to the city. We used Lloyd's dragon in order to get there, since I didn't really know how to summon mine yet. I have to say, I'm kinda jealous that Lloyd knows how to summon his. No one has really told me how to summon mine. I guess it's for a later lesson or something.

"So," Lloyd started, "Have you unlocked your true potential yet?"

It seems like the Senseis have neglected to tell me about this, too. I can't be mad at them though, we were sidetracked by this whole ordeal with Misaki anyway.

"What's a 'true potential'?" I asked. Might as well have Lloyd tell me it now. It's probably something important anyway.

"I'll take that as a no," Lloyd said, the proceeded to explain what it is. "Your True Potential basically gives you the ability to manipulate and freely use your powers. In order to unlock it, you have to overcome your emotional obstacles. It may not be easy, but in the end it becomes easier, and it also looks really cool."

Emotional obstacles? What kind of emotional obstacles? Do I even have any?

"I don't know if I've unlocked my true potential or not, so I can't tell you much. The others could give you better explanation, well, except for Lilly. I doubt she even had to unlock a true potential," Lloyd continued. That's right, Lilly gained her powers unnaturally, so she won't have to go through this. I don't know whether to say she's lucky or unfortunate. She already can easily use and manipulate her powers, but some kind of emotional obstacle could be holding her down or something. Almost like those tough movie characters who actually have a lot going on inside. Could she be the same way? I mean, she's never really told me much about herself except for how she got her powers and how long it's been since she's seen her parents.

Then, I thought about the others. With how Misaki messed with their minds, those emotional obstacles may have resurfaced, making them have to overcome them again. Then again, I don't know what their obstacles are. It could be something not related to their fears.

Now, my question is what would _I_ have to overcome? What is holding me back? I doubt anyone would be able to tell me, but I want to know what I need to get past. Maybe what I need to get over is a feeling I consider normal? Could that be it? I'll probably find out someday, or maybe never. I won't know until the time comes.

We soon landed two blocks away from Borg Industries, and let me just say, the Borg Tower is much taller than I expected. I get that the buildings in Ninjago City, but geez, this building made me feel even shorter.

"Alright, let's get going," I heard Lloyd say as he started walking north. Wait a second, wouldn't he want to go into disguise if we're going to the building Misaki inhabits? I doubt they'll recognize me, since most of the time my scarf is covering the lower half my face, but Lloyd's the Green Ninja. Anyone could recognize him!

"Um, Lloyd, wouldn't you want to wear a disguise?" I asked him, walking fast to catch up with him. Lloyd looked at his own outfit.

"This is as close as I can get. I think I'll be fine," he shrugged. I gave him an are-you-serious!? look.

"This is how the others disguise themselves, too. Besides, no one except for you and the others have seen my full face before," Lloyd said. I wanted to facepalm. Does he not realize how easy it is for people to recognize him!?

"Okay, first off, you're wearing a green outfit and your dragon symbol is on the back of your hoodie. Second, people can recognize your voice. Third, you're one of the small few in Ninjago who have blonde hair. Have you ever realized how rare blonde hair is here!?" I said. Lloyd took another glance at his outfit and sighed.

"Well, it's too late to change now. The best I can do is try to disguise my voice," he said. He cleared his throat several times, then said in a voice similar to a child's, "How about this, then?"

I tried to refrain from laughing at the voice. If he didn't sound like a woman in his normal tone, he does now. Lloyd went through several funny-sounding voices before he gave up and said, "Let's just get going and hope they think I'm just a regular civilian."

I nodded and followed him down the block.

After looking in six buildings near the Borg Tower, I started to feel like I wanted to give up. Four buildings were closed, and two were buildings for tech companies. None had even a hint of Misaki or her henchmen.

I considered telling Lloyd I wanted to give up once we started to enter the seventh building. Alex probably gave me the wrong description of where the building is. He wasn't very specific either. I decided not to say anything once we stepped inside.

The inside was huge, silver walls. There were glass elevators and metallic staircases. A silver secretary's desk sat a couple feet away from us, and a woman with ebony black hair sat at the desk, dressed just like how you would imagine a secretary.

"Hello! Welcome!" the secretary said in a cheerful voice. First thing I noticed, the secretary didn't say the business's name when greeting us. Odd, but I assumed she just forgot.

"Ah, taking your daughter out for a tour of the city today? Say, you look awfully young for a father," the secretary commented, observing my height compared to his. Lloyd chuckled uncomfortably.

"Uh, no, we-" he was cut off by the secretary saying, "A young couple touring the city then? Oh, I remember when my husband and I used to do that, but now all he does is sit and watch game shows."

My cheeks grew warm when she said we were a couple. Why would that be the first thing you assume when you see a boy and a girl out together? You know, maybe they're friends or something.

"Um, listen, we just-" Lloyd was cut off yet again by the secretary blabbing about her and her husband. "You know, my husband and I used to look just like you cuties, except he was as short as her."

As Lloyd continued to try to talk to the secretary, I took the time to look at everything behind her. There were small offices lined up on both sides, making a short hallway up to a metallic staircase. I watched people go in and out of the small offices, sometimes carrying papers. It was almost how you would imagine a cubicle-filled office, minus the cubicles. I froze suddenly when I laid my eyes on a woman who was observing Lloyd and I. She stood by the staircase, squinting and staring at us. My eyes widened when I recognized her.

She had long, auburn hair, winged eyeliner, tan skin, and hazel eyes. I was sure she was the woman who attacked Lilly and I the night we met everyone. Marléne. The woman with the crescent blades and robots. My eyes widened as she started walking our way. The look in her eyes gave me one message: She knows who we are.

I grabbed Lloyd's wrist and started to back up with tiny steps.

"Don't you think we should get going? I want to see the rest of the city before sundown," I said, not meaning to sound nervous. I wanted my act to be convincing. Lloyd gave a confused look and so did the secretary.

"But it's 2 in the afternoon," the secretary said, bewildered.

"Karma, what's wrong?" Lloyd whispered, most likely noticing the nervous tone in my voice. That Marléne lady is probably planning to attack us. I need to get Lloyd out of here. I started to look around, to see if anyone was following Marléne, but then I noticed something. There was no sign of Marléne anywhere. Weird, I don't remember her being able to become invisible or teleport.

Suddenly, a voice shouted out of nowhere, " _Attrape les!"_

Robots looking identical to the ones from last time dropped from the ceiling, along with Marléne. The guns for the robots immediately appeared and they started shooting almost instantly. I quickly pushed Lloyd out of their line of fire, then ducked. I saw the secretary's desk fly over me, crashing into one of the silver-colored walls.

I ran over to Lloyd and we continued to evade the robot's line of fire.

"You have the powers of darkness, right!? Could you try to blind them and that lady with darkness?" Lloyd asked as we continued to run.

"I don't have full control over them yet though!" I said. Great, now I wish I had unlocked my true potential. We wouldn't be stuck in this mess if I had just unlocked it. Then again, I'm the one who started this. I'm the one who made it obvious we were a threat. I'm the one who made Marléne suspicious. It's all my fault, really.

"It's alright. Go ahead and try, though. I'll try to hold them off!" Lloyd said, running in a different direction. I was about to stop him, but instead I didn't. Despite my intense worry that something was going to happen again because of me, I knew I had to at least try to use my powers.

I tried to focus, as that was the first step to my power. I closed my eyes, trying my best, but feeling frustrated at the same time because I couldn't use my powers automatically. I couldn't cloud a room with darkness in a snap. Though, the thoughts of what could happen if I couldn't do this kept me worried and terrified. What if Lloyd dies because of me? That would be two peoples deaths that happened because of me. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen!

I opened my eyes and noticed the room was completely dark. I felt relieved and full of joy. Do I have control over my powers now!? Did I unlock my true potential!?

I snapped out of my thoughts when I saw a green light materialize on the other side of the room. That must be Lloyd, didn't know his powers could radiate light though. I ran across the room, stepping on something hard and sort of squishy on the way there. Did I just step on someone!? I tried to take my mind off of it as I ran up to Lloyd.

"Are you alright!?" I asked immediately.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but we need to get out of here immediately before anyone else comes," Lloyd said, sounding a little shaken. Is he _really_ okay? I led him out of the building, using the light coming through the glass doors to help lead the way. Once we were outside, we immediately started running to where we landed. I took the time to look at Lloyd to make sure he was okay. He looked fine, despite a tiny cut on his face. Though, he was pale like a ghost.

"Is everything _really_ okay, Lloyd?" I asked. I didn't mean to pry, but again, I wanted to make sure he was fine.

"I'm ok, just, something went through my head back there. I'm fine now. Don't worry about it," Lloyd said.

"What went through your head?" I asked. Don't tell me Misaki got to him.

"Well...I saw something.." Lloyd said, his voice getting quieter, "I saw...my father dying."


	40. Chapter 41

Crap, Misaki somehow got to him! How though!? I don't recall seeing her anywhere, but then again, she could have attacked him when I made everything dark. Damn it, this happened to him because of me. Why do I have to always screw everything up!?

Once we reached the street corner where we landed, Lloyd summoned his dragon, though it took him three minutes. It was like he was having difficulty summoning his dragon. Does summoning them have something to do with your thoughts and/or fears?

As we flew home, I asked Lloyd if he was really okay. I mean, Misaki did make him see his father dying. That's gotta be pretty traumatizing for someone who's mentally 12. Especially since Lloyd cares a lot about his dad. I kinda wish I had a bond with my dad like Lloyd does with his..

"I'm okay. I know it was...just a mirage," Lloyd said, his voice quieter than before. I knew it was still bugging him just by the look on his face. I didn't continue to bother him though. By how he kept saying he was okay, I knew that was a sign he doesn't want to talk about it...or does he? Is he saying he's okay just to look stronger and to hide how he's actually feeling? I mean, if I think back, he never really talked much about his battles with the Overlord. Especially the time when the Overlord possessed his father. I'm sure he was really upset then, but his teammates said he was very strong during that time. Did he act strong to mask how he truly felt during that time? Did Misaki cause those feelings from that time to come back from what she made him see?

Once we arrived at the Monastery, we both immediately ran inside.

"Hey, look who's back," I heard Kai say when we entered. I could smell something burning.

"Um, Kai, did you accidentally set something on fire?" I asked. He shook his head.

"What you're smelling is Cole's cooking. He insisted he cook dinner instead of me. You might want to call the pizza delivery place," Kai said.

"Hey! I've worked on this dish for five days! No way are you guys getting something else!" Cole yelled from the kitchen.

"Is that dish meant to kill us?" Jay asked.

"It's Violet Berry Soup! It's not toxic!" Cole yelled, starting to sound enfuriated.

"With you cooking it, it's bound to be more toxic than a nuclear waste dump," Kai said.

"You know, maybe I'll dump all your hair gel in this. Then you won't have that ridiculous Goku hair," Cole said, sounding less enraged now. Kai stood up, looking angry now.

"Then maybe I'll shave off your eyebrows! Those things are hideous anyway!" Kai shot back. I heard something metallic drop in the kitchen, then Cole stormed into the main room, looking just as enfuriated as Kai.

"Do that and I end your life, Porcupine," Cole growled at him. Kai just glared at him.

"Could you guys please stop? I have a pounding headache right now," Lloyd said quietly, before walking off to his room. So, the image Misaki put in his head is still bothering him, or that's at least what I think is really the issue. I'm pretty sure Lloyd would have walked away much earlier if he truly had a bad headache.

I saw Kai look over at me with a much more concerned expression. "Is Lloyd alright?" he asked. I sighed. I went ahead and told them all the things that happened at that office building. Every part of the visit I could remember. I heard Kai curse under his breath once I finished telling them all everything.

"God damn it Misaki," I heard him curse again, "First the thing with my sister, now this."

"What thing with your sister?" Cole asked, just as confused as I was. Kai sighed.

"What Misaki made me see," he answered quietly.

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did you see? What's making you avoid Nya?" I asked. Kai looked at me, almost as if he was glaring at me. I have to admit, the scar on his right here makes him look a bit menacing, but not really that much.

"I saw my sister abandoning me. It's something I'm afraid is going to happen someday. The mirage Misaki forced me to see hurt me. Though, I suppose avoiding my sister didn't really help either," Kai admitted. I could relate. I was always afraid that Luo would leave me behind someday, but now she's already done that...

The difference is though, Nya is the only family Kai has left. I still have lots of family left, and Kai & Nya have no one left except for their friends.

"Kai, I know she'd never abandon you. You're her brother, and you're the eldest. She looks up to you, although you don't always display the best behavior for a role model," I said, trying to reassure him. Why would Nya abandon him anyway? I think she's cares too much about him to abandon him.

"Yeah, I know, I'm a jerk wad at times," Kai said, sighing.

"By 'at times' you mean 'a lot'," I heard a voice from behind me say. I turned to see Lilly leaning against the wall. I didn't even hear her walking up. How does she do that!? I can't even exit a room without my sneakers making at least one squeak. I must know what magic she's using to silence her feet.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Kai said. Wow, he's actually admitting that he can be a jerk at times. I haven't been around here long enough to fully see Kai's jerk side, but I'm pretty sure the others are surprised.

"So, you finally came out of your room. Were you sleeping in there all day?" Jay asked. I have to admit, I actually forgot he was there. He's never been quiet that long before, or that's at least what I've seen. I'm sure he's been quiet much longer than now, but oh well.

"No," she said. I saw her rub her eyes a slight bit and I noticed something. Her eyes were slightly red. Had she been crying this whole time? Or is that just pool chlorine?

"What were you even doing then?" Kai asked her.

"Why are you so nosy all of the sudden?" she asked.

"Hey, we were just worried. We've really never seen you just lock yourself in your room for the whole day. I get Misaki may have tore you up, but it's still unusual," Kai said. Funny, when I first met him, he fought Lilly, now he's expressing worry for her. Oh, how the times change.

Lilly narrowed her eyes. "Why do you care?" she said, before turning and walking away. Geez, did she need to be so harsh!? I wouldn't have reacted that way if someone was worried about me!

"Well then," Cole said, surprised as well by her negativity.

"Hey Karma, could I ask you something?" Jay asked as he looked out one of the windows in the main room.

"Yeah," Why do they need to even ask to ask a question?

"Did any of those guys follow you and Lloyd back?" he asked, staring out the window. Crap, I know where this is going.

"Not that I remember," I said.

"Well, either they hid from you guys' sight or they've been here this whole time," Jay said. I knew he was going to say that. The question he asked made it obvious. Misaki and her henchmen are here, and I doubt they're here for Cole's cooking.

"I had a feeling they'd come. I doubt they'd would have just let Lloyd and Karma go without wreaking some havoc," Cole said, sighing. Both he and Kai spun, a dirt brown spinjitsu tornado surrounding Cole, and a fiery red tornado surrounding Kai. Jay joined in as well, his being electric blue. When all three boys stopped, they were in their ninja gi. How did they do that!? Did they have their gi in their pockets or something? Were they...naked in there? I was a little disgusted with that last one, but I doubted it.

"Are you guys magical girls or something!?" I asked. More importantly, am I able to do that too!?

"Haha maybe. That would make you one too, since I think you can do that too," Jay said. Well, might as well give it a shot. I spun, waiting to see if anything would happen. When I finished doing spinjitsu, nothing had happened. When I looked down at my outfit though, it had suddenly changed to my ninja gi during spinjitsu! It even included my scarf and the ribbon I use to tie my hair into a bun.

"Holy crap, I really am a magical girl," I said, surprised. Maybe I'm the next Usagi Tsukino? That'd be cool as heck!

"Okay, we should get out there before they start messing with any of the villagers. Kai, could you notify everyone about what's going on?" Cole asked. Kai nodded and ran into the hallway. I followed Cole and Jay outside.

Misaki and her henchmen stood several feet from the Monastery, but still pretty close.

"Oh look, the ninja finally come out of their little safe house," Marléne snickered.

"Last I recall, you use nindroid ripoffs to fight for you while you just stand there, so don't laugh, coward," I growled. Marléne looked offended.

"Why you li-" Marléne was cut off by Misaki putting a hand over her mouth.

"Hush, before you make matters worse," she said calmly. Marléne glared at her.

"Now, to business. Even after the last lesson I gave you all, you still have the audacity to bug me. Don't you all realize I'm trying to do something good for your city? I'm trying to save it from corruption! The more you guys bug me, the more time it will take me to save the city!" Misaki said

"What you're doing isn't saving the city!" Cole yelled. Exactly. Her little followers have been killing police men, politicians, and innocent higher class families, as well as a few select citizens.

"You're just too ignorant to see it," I heard Sebastian say.

"You guys have been killing innocent people!" I yelled. Misaki chuckled. What's so funny about this!?

"What's to say your friends haven't either? The Great Devourer, The Overlord, all of it. Several innocent people died during their battles with those beasts. In fact, you've killed innocent people too, Seiko," Misaki said, smirking. Who said she could use my real name!? I don't recall giving her permission! Though, when the hell did I kill innocent people? Misaki's full of shit.

"When!?" I asked, ready for some kind of bullcrap story to come out of her mouth. I know that I've never killed anyone.

"Oh," Misaki acted surprised, "you don't remember your sister? How you always tend to think about protecting yourself before you protect those you love and care about? How you left her behind?"

I froze. It felt as if she just stabbed me in the chest. Twice. I tried to shake it off, but it still stabbed at me. I couldn't even hear what was being said now. I didn't kill my sister, it's not my fault! Yet, I was the one who left her behind. I was the one who abandoned her. It's my fault. It's all my fault! Everything's my fault!

"Stop telling lies, Misaki!" I heard a voice shout. I snapped out of my thoughts to notice that everyone else on the team was here now, all in their ninja gis. Nya had on her samurai gear, which looked ultra cool.

"Well, now that I see you all are here, let's get started with this plan, shall we?" Misaki said, looking a bit overjoyed.

"What plan?" Jay asked, glaring.

"We plan to exterminate you all. Simple as that. It'd take too much time to explain it all anyway. Who even does that? Who even stands here for 30 minutes to explain their plan?" Misaki said, looking to her comrades to see if they'd answer.

"Alright then," she said, cracking her knuckles, "Let's do this."

At that moment, the fight broke out. Everyone was fighting someone. Everyone but me, at least. I was trying to avoid the fight, as the thing Misaki said about my sister was still stinging me. I tried to run around the fight, avoiding anyone I saw. I have a question, by the way. Where the hell are the Senseis and Misako!? I would have thought they'd help us. Are they not here or something?

I stopped running when I saw Lilly and Misaki fighting ahead. I noticed that Misaki shielded herself from Lilly's attacks with her arms. The weird this was, Lilly is using a katana and it's somehow not cutting Misaki's skin.

"How the hell are you not getting hurt!?" Lilly yelled, sounding frustrated. Misaki stepped back.

"Armor the color of my skin, hon. Super protective, and it makes it look like I have ripped arms," Misaki smiled, showing off her arms as if she were a bodybuilder. Lilly looked confused, and a little weirded out.

"And now...surprise!" Misaki shouted, forcing both of her arms forward, as if she were pushing something. It was silent for a minute, then Lilly's eyes widened. She fell to her knees and covered her ears as Misaki smirked triumphantly. I knew what she was doing.

"Stop!" I shouted, running towards Misaki at full speed. I socked her in the face, but it didn't stop her powers. Misaki countered by kicking me to the ground, acting like she was unaffected by the hit, but really, her nose was bleeding. She wiped away some of the blood from her nose.

"You little pest. Don't you understand that I'm helping your friend!?" Misaki growled.

"You're not helping her! You're mentally torturing her! Like you've done with everyone else!" I shouted. Is Misaki really that crazy!?

"What do you mean?" Misaki said, smiling. With the flick of her hand, she made what Lilly was seeing appear above her. I saw our friends giving her ugly looks, and saying how she's fake and no hero because she didn't obtain her powers naturally. I saw the Senseis looking disgusted. I heard Sensei Garmadon say "You've brought dishonor on this team with your stolen powers."

Then, I saw myself. I looked really upset, and angry. "How could you have lied to me!? You stole! How could I have ever learned from a fake like you!" I shouted. No. No, I'd never say that! I'd never say anything like that at all!

Suddenly, a woman with short blonde hair in a bob appeared, replacing me in the mirage. Her eyes were a cold blue and she had lips the color of crimson. She looked so similar to Lilly, I assumed she was her mother, or someone in her family. The woman smirked.

"See dear? Didn't I tell you? No one likes a phony," the woman said, still smirking.

The bubble that was showing me what was going on in Lilly's head disappeared.

"I'm helping her by making her regret her choice. I'm showing her how much of a fraud she really is," Misaki said, smirking just like the woman I saw in Lilly's thoughts. I felt rage boiling inside me. This lady seriously thinks it's okay to hurt someone like this!? She seriously thinks this is helping her!? What kind of sick person would think that!? I felt disgusted and angry.

I turned, glaring at Misaki. Hatred started to flare up inside me. A plan formed inside my mind. It's something I've never tried, but my hatred wants me to try it. I slowly took off my scarf, being careful to make sure Misaki didn't see me. I held it in my hands, then took deep breath. This is revenge, Misaki. For what you've done to my friends, for what you did to Lloyd, and this is for killing my sister.

I ran behind Misaki and quickly tied the scarf around her neck. I knocked her onto the ground and pulled on the long ends of the scarf. I stood on her hands. I showed no remorse or regret for what I was doing.

"You...pest.." Misaki choked. I've got her. I can end this now. I can save my friends from suffering because of Misaki. I can save everyone.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't notice she freed her hands from my feet. She forced both of her arms forward, and white filled my vision. I felt myself let go of the scarf tails and fall to the ground. I heard Misaki coughing. What's going on!?

I could see Luo in the distance. I felt relief and ran after her.

"Luo! Luo!" I yelled, feeling pure happiness. I get to see my sister again! She's back!

Luo turned to look at me. She looked shocked at first, then looked upset. What's wrong?

"Seiko? Why...why are you here!?" she said, sounding a bit disappointed. Did I do something?

"Someone let me see you again," I smiled. Luo didn't smile back.

"No...no...leave me alone!" Luo shouted, breaking into a sprint. I followed her.

"Luo! Wait! What do you mean!?" I said.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted again, "You're just going to kill me and abandon me again!"

I stopped and watched her run away. I felt hurt, as if now someone had stabbed me for the third time. No...I didn't kill her...did I? I didn't abandon her...did I? I felt tears stream down my face.

"It's all your fault, and you know it," I heard my voice above me, "You're the reason Luo is dead. You're the reason your friends are suffering from Misaki's mirages. You're the reason why your parents couldn't get a better place for you and your sister to live."

I didn't even try to object. I knew everything was my fault. The voice had made it obvious enough.

Suddenly, I heard a gunshot, and my mind was pulled out of the mirage. I saw Misaki fall to the ground clutching her chest. Wait, what happened!? I looked over at Lilly, who was now sitting up, and looked just as surprised as I was. I turned to see who was behind Misaki and froze in shock. There stood a boy in a gray hoodie holding a pistol. He had navy blue eyes and pale skin. The most recognizeable thing about him? His firey orange hair, which was at a length that made him look like a woman. Alex. Alex had shot Misaki.


	41. Chapter 42

**A/N: Person who asked. I appreciate the offer but I can't add anyone's oc's in this story at the moment. I already have the next volume planned out and I can't fit in anyone's oc. Sorry**

 **BTW This is the second to last chapter! Last chapter will be coming out sometime this week!**

Alex trembled as he held the pistol. He looked scared, as if he thought someone was going to come after him now. I saw someone walk over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Good work, Alex. That's the greatest you've done in a while. I'm proud," a voice said. I recognized that voice as Sebastian's. Okay, I've always thought Sebastian was odd, but having someone kill his boss is a bit much.

"What the hell!?" I heard Lilly say. Sebastian chuckled.

"What? You really thought I'd let Misaki lead!? By how she treated the others, I doubt she would have been a greater leader than me," he said. Well, saying that you're a better leader than her won't make me believe you are one.

"But anyways, I must be off. _I_ have to save Ninjago after all," Sebastian said, linking arms with Alex. He called over Marléne, who did the same thing, and they disappeared. Not very far though, they reappeared at the bottom of the hill and started walking out of the village. What a jerk. I have to admit, I almost feel sorry for Misaki right now.

I looked over at Lilly, who was sitting up now.

"Did you notice they didn't take the other two with them?" she asked. She acted as if she wasn't just tormented by her fears a few minutes ago.

"Other two?" I asked, confused.

"There was a girl with choppy crimson hair and a boy with jet black hair almost the length of Alex's," she explained. I knew the boy with black hair was the person they called Seok. The girl, I have no idea who she is but I feel like I may have seen her before.

"Nevermind, let's just go see if they're fighting with the Ninja," Lilly said, getting up and walking away. I got up and followed her.

When we reached them, they weren't fighting with Seok and the girl. They were talking.

"Why would they leave without Seok and I though!?" the girl said, outraged. I recognized her voice. She was the girl who was talking to Alex a couple nights ago, when I got information out of Alex. Evidently they saw Sebastian, Alex, and Marléne leave.

"I have no idea," Cole said, rubbing his chin.

"Well, one thing's for sure, they're heading for the city. We need to stop them before they cause chaos to erupt," Lilly said. The others nodded.

"Well, great plan, but one thing. They have that kid who can teleport with them. They can force him to teleport them farther away, then we'll be chasing them forever!" Jay mentioned. He had a point. Alex is master of Psion after all. He could probably do stuff other than teleporting as well.

"Can't you guys create a chain reaction with all your powers combined or something?" the girl asked.

"Estera, I don't think it's that easy for them to-" Seok was interrupted by Cole saying "No, we can do it. Everything has to be perfectly timed though, and we have to come up with a plan first."

For maybe thirty minutes, we discussed a plan. It wasn't as difficult to think up one, but I think the fact that they didn't have Zane around anymore to freeze people in place slowed down the plan a little. We did come up with a plan though, the only problem was that my powers would be the first step in the plan. You see, I'm not exactly confident with my powers yet. I may have been able to make the lights go out at the office building, but it doesn't mean I'll be able to do it again now.

I didn't say anything about not being confident with my powers. I didn't want to throw off their plan with my personal issues. Besides, the lives of those who live in the city should come first, right?

I walked down the hill as the others followed me, but I stopped when I noticed something. Sebastian and the other two were still there. It seemed that they were talking. You know, I would have thought they would have left by now, instead of sticking around. I'm not going to complain though, they just made it easier for us to kick their butts.

I tried to focus the best I could. I remember that I was able to blind the robots and Marléne by focusing. Unfortunately though, I was unable to focus because of what I saw earlier. What Misaki put in my head. I get everything's always my fault, but she made it even worse. It got me thinking though, if I screw this up, I'll screw up the plan, and it will be all my fault.

"What's taking her so long!?" I heard Estera groan. Geez, if you're going to be this impatient, why don't you just take them on yourself!?

"She's new to her powers. She doesn't have a full grasp on them yet," Lloyd explained to Estera.

"She's been with you nutjobs for three months and she still doesn't know how to use her powers!?" Estera said, groaning again. Wait, how'd she know I was at the Monastery for three months!?

"Well, some people are slower at learning," Kai said, sounding annoyed. Estera sighed and walked over to me. She placed a hand my shoulder.

"Listen, I saw what Misaki was doing to you. I'm going to tell you this now, nothing is your fault. It's the universe's fault. The universe is the one who made all this happen to you. Your sister's death is Misaki's fault, since Misaki is the one who killed her. So, stop blaming yourself. I'm sure your sister wouldn't want you to be blaming yourself for something that wasn't of your doing. So, please, for your sister, blind these assholes so they can blast them outta here!" she said. How'd she know all this!?

"Wait, how do you-" I was cut off by Estera saying "I could see the nightmare Misaki implanted into your mind. There was a bubble showing it above your head. I recalled Misaki talking about killing someone's sister, so I figured you were the poor soul who had to endure that," Estera explained. I suddenly felt a huge surge of hope and courage.

I believed Estera. It was the universe's fault. The universe and fate is what made all this happen to me. It's not my fault. Why did I even think that in the first place!?

I suddenly felt a huge surge of energy. I looked at my hands and noticed darkness floating above my hands in orbs. Holy nuggets! Have I...have I...have I mastered my powers!? Is this my true potential!? I suddenly remembered my objective, and focused. I watched a huge cloud of darkness engulf Sebastian and his cronies. Though, when I finished englufing them in darkness, I felt as though most of my energy was drained. For some reason, I landed on the ground too, as though I had been levitating the whole time.

"What was that!?" Seok asked, still in awe.

"That was her true potential. She conquered a fear that had been holding her back," Lloyd smiled. So that was my true potential!

"Alright, we can celebrate later. Let's just deal with Sebastian first!" Cole said. Everyone nodded. Kai ran past me and unleashed a huge fireball, with Lloyd following behind him with a ball of energy. I saw Alex disappear without Sebastian and Marléne. Marléne was waving her arms, trying to put out some of the flames that scorched her arms and a part of her face. Doesn't she know how to stop, drop and roll!? Sebastian was blown backwards by Lloyd's energy ball. Nya fought with Marléne before being knocked out.

Lilly sent a couple of waves down the hill. Jay used his powers on the waves of water. It electrocuted Marléne and Sebastian, but not fatally.

Lastly, Cole created a huge boulder and threw it towards them. Unfortunately, Sebastian moved out of the way, though, it hit Marléne. Okay, that last part didn't go as planned.

Kai noticed the problem and immediately stepped in. He restrained Sebastian and took the pistol he had in his pocket. He threw it up towards us, which I don't think was a very good idea.

"Someone grab it and shoot him or something!" Kai yelled as Sebastian struggled out if his grip. Sebastian broke free, turning to punch Kai in the face, and knee him in the stomach. I hurried and picked up the pistol. I aimed it towards Sebastian. Would I be able to do this? I've never shot a gun before. But what if I missed and accidentally hit Kai or Lloyd instead!?

I took a deep breath. Everything's going to be okay. Everything will be fine.

"Hey Sebastian!" I yelled, "Didn't anyone ever tell you karma's a bitch!?"

I pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet whizzed towards Sebastian and hit him straight in the chest. Geez, that was quite the lucky shot. You'd think stuff like that would only happen in movies. I felt relief though. Ninjago City is now safe, all thanks to the Ninja and I.

A short time later, the police arrived and they took away Marléne, Estera, and Seok. I felt a little sad to see Estera go, especially since she helped me unlock my true potential, but I knew she had to spend time in prison for the crimes she committed. They took away Sebastian and Misaki's bodies as well.

As we watched the police cars slowly leave, I heard Lilly clear her throat.

"I...believe I should apologize for something," she said.

"Huh?" I heard Lloyd say.

"I wanted to apologize to Kai for how I acted earlier. I was just hurting from what Misaki did to me, and I didn't know how to properly react to someone who cared. And, I wanted to say sorry to all of you, for how harsh and negative I've been sometimes ever since I've been since I came back. It was wrong of me to do that," she apologized, looking at the ground.

"I understood how you felt at the time. I was sort of a bad mood after what Misaki did, too," Kai admitted.

"And we accept your apology. Now if only we can get Lloyd to fess up that he stole all the candy Jay had stashed in his dresser," Cole said, smiling.

"Hey! Just because it was candy doesn't mean it was me!" Lloyd argued, laughing with everyone else. I saw Lilly look up and smile. Her blue eyes no longer had a hint of sadness in them.

I saw her eyes meet Kai's, and her cheeks became pink. I giggled to myself.

"Ha, Lilly, your face is becoming red," Jay said, smiling.

"Eh!? No it's not! It's just the glare of the sun!" she said. I tried to contain my laughter.

"The glare of the sun?" Jay asked with a confused look.

"Oh, shut up already," Lilly said, crossing her arms.

"Alright guys," Cole said, laughing, "Let's go home."


	42. Chapter 43

**(AN: Hey guys, thank you so much for sticking around to read this little story with my ocs. I've appreciated all the feedback and look forward to writing the next volume. Thank you all for being so awesome!)**

 _ **Two weeks later**_

I watched people walk past me as I waited for Lilly at the subway station. Really, I couldn't tell you where she is or if she's even here. She told me she'd get here before me anyway.

"Waiting for someone?" I heard a voice ask. I turned to see Lloyd standing there.

"Yeah. Waiting for Lilly. Is it the same for you?" I asked. Lately, everyone's been slowly leaving the Monastery, with Jay being the first to leave. After a huge fight with Cole, he stormed out with his stuff and left. Nya left a few days ago. Today, Cole and Kai are leaving, and so are Lilly and I. Though I didn't want to leave the team, I really wanted to see my parents again. I figured this would just be a small break and I'd return in a few weeks.

"Nope. I just got done saying goodbye to Cole and Kai," Lloyd said. He sighed.

"Oh. So, are you going to do anything during the break?" I asked.

"I'm just going to look for someone to fill the gap where Zane was. It's something I've been meaning to do for a month," Lloyd said. I'm not meaning to sound selfish or anything, but haven't Lilly and I already filled that gap!? I didn't ask.

"Well, I wish you good luck with that," I said, trying to give a hopeful smile.

"Thanks, but I kinda fear something," Lloyd admitted. Huh?

"What is it?" I asked.

"I fear that the team may have broken up," he said, looking a little said.

"But you can fix it, right?" I said. Lloyd shook his head. I doubted he understood what I said.

"No, I mean, everyone in this team is the glue that holds the team together. Maybe if you talked with them all, you could solve the issue that's breaking the team up. Have the Senseis talk to Jay and Cole and try to settle things between them," I explained.

Lloyd was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, I'll try that," he said, smiling.

"Though," I said, "We can't be on a break for long. Alex is still on the run..."

"Don't worry about him," Lloyd reassured me, "He won't be bothering anyone for a while. Please, take a break for a bit, and I'll take one too."

We both smiled for a brief moment, then Lilly walked up, her face as red as a tomato.

"Where've you been?" I asked. The answer was pretty obvious.

"I was just saying goodbye to Kai," she said, acting as if her face wasn't literally the shade of his ninja suit.

I rested my arm (actually, more like a stretch considering she's taller than me.) on her shoulder. "Mhm yeah. So, what happened?" I asked her, smirking.

"We just hugged, that's it," she lied. Lloyd rested his arm on her other shoulder.

"Suuuure," he said sarcastically, "Okay, what really happened?"

"Okay, maybe I kissed him on the cheek. No big deal!" Lilly said. The look on her face told me she was still lying.

"Lilly, you know we're going to keep pestering you if you don't tell us," I said.

"Fine! I kissed him on the lips, okay!? Now can we go!?" she admitted, her face redder than it was before.

"Alright then, _Tomato_ ," I said smiling.

"Don't call me that," Lilly said, crossing her arms.

"Too late, Tomato," I giggled. Lilly narrowed her eyes.

"Let's just go. I'm sure Lloyd has to leave here soon anyway," she said.

"Alright, alright," I said. I turned to Lloyd.

"See you again soon, then," I waved goodbye as I followed Lilly out of the subway station. I saw Lloyd wave back. I watched him wave until we were engulfed by the crowds of people in the subway station. To be honest, I already missed him in the team. Is that weird?

"Around this time next year I wonder where we'll be," I heard Lilly say. Well, that came out of nowhere. "I wonder where they'll be next year."

I nodded, "Same."

"Well, even if they don't remember us, I hope they'll always be smiling and happy," Lilly said. Is she talking nonsense!?

"Um, Lilly, we'll be returning soon, right?" I asked.

"Maybe. You never know what time has in store for you," she said as we walked out of the subway station and onto the sidewalks of the city. She had a point. I'll never know when I'll get to see everyone again until the time comes.

"So, this is a little off topic, but could you maybe teach me how to summon my elemental dragon?" I asked.

Lilly laughed a little bit.

"I'll see what I can do."

 _ **End of Book 1**_


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